The work continues
by 123nemio123
Summary: Officers Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are shocked to learn of the death of Gazelle just hours after they visited her concert. Can they uncover who is behind the murder before more innocent mammals will be killed?
1. The morning afterwards

**Authors note:**

 **After reading lots of stories on here, I decided to try writing one myself.**

 **Please note that I am not a native speaker, so some of my grammer and expressions might be a tad bit off.**

 **This story will include some rather dark passages, consider this your only warning.**

 **I do not own any copyright for Zootopia.**

 **With all that said, enjoy the first chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 – The morning afterwards**

Last night had been amazing. Judy was at the Gazelle concert with her best friend Nick Wilde, and many of her colleagues from the Zootopia Police Department. Gazelle had played her favorite song, "Try Everything", which was her main workout song when training for the police academy. The Nighthowlers case was solved, Bellweather behind bars, and Nick was now not only her friend but also her partner in the ZPD.

Overall, things couldn't be going much better for Judy Hopps right now, she was listening to last nights songs on her iCarrot and happily dancing her way to Precinct One, her workplace. With this euphoric state of mind and the loud music she almost didn't hear a very familiar voice call her name. Almost – because those long bunny ears had to be good for something, so she could still tell it was Nick's voice but couldn't quite understand what he was saying. She took out one of the earplugs of her headphones, leaving the other one in so as not to interrupt the cheerful music, and looked at Nick who was also walking towards the police station from the other side.

" _What was that?_ " she asked.

" _I said good morning carrots_ " the red fox chuckled, " _sorry for interrupting your trance!_ "

" _Well good morning slick_ " came the bunnys response, and she finally pulled out the other earplug so as not to be impolite towards her friend and partner.

They had both only gotten to bed around 3am on this day, with work beginning at 7. And while this short amount of sleep posed no problem for the energetic bunny, it was rather clear that foxes were nocturnal mammals from the look on Nicks face. Judy was sure that after surviving the Chief in the bullpen – he had slept just as much as his officers after all – her partner would get a strong coffee right away.

Occupied with these thoughts, Judy walked into her workplace next to her partner expecting an overly cheerful Cheetah to greet them as always. But Clawhouser looked different today. At first Judy thought it was due to his also rather short night but upon approaching the Cheetah it became obvious that the interrupted sleep schedule couldn't be the only reason for his unusual facial expression. One emotion seemed to dominate his face, and it was utter sadness! Judy was shocked upon seeing this, she knew Gazelle was Clawhouser's idol so getting to see her live performance should have sent his mind to heaven. She thought if she should confront him about it but Nick beat her to it and asked

" _Hey spots, whats wrong?_ "

Clawhousers usual self seemed to be all but gone as the overweight cheetah who normally wouldn't miss a chance to talk about anything and everything seemed to struggle to find any words.

" _I.. can't…_ *sniff* _bullpen…_ " was all he managed to say before collapsing his face on his desk and starting to cry.

Both Nick and Judy wished they had the time to offer some comfort to their now weeping friend, but the briefing in the bullpen would begin any minute now and since Clawhouser had also told them they would get answers there they made their way to the bullpen, exchanging a puzzled and worried look.

Upon opening the door to the bullpen, they could already hear the loud voices of their much larger colleagues that were cleraly debating something. In the cacophony of different mammalian voices it was hard for Nick and Judy to hear any details while they hopped on their shared seat in the front row. The only word that Judys fine hearing could make out repeatedly was "Gazelle", which was not surprising since most of the mammals in the room had also been present at the concert the night before. There was also talk of a crime, but the two small officers failed to get the attention of any of the larger mammals so as to get an explanation about what exactly had happened.

Unable to satisfy their curiosity for now, they did not have to wait long for Chief Bogo to enter the room. The most senior mammal of Precinct One had his usual "I don't care" face on, but with his years of experience as a con mammal Nick could tell that underneath his emotionless performance the Chief of police did in fact very much care about something at this very moment.

The room went silent as the Buffalo walked to his podium and cleared his throat

" _As many of you might have already heard, the famous singer Gazelle was found dead this morning, next to one of the tigers that performed with her yesterday. Hopps, Wild, Fangmayer and Delgato, I want all four of you to drive to the concert hall immediately to keep sightseers away while the forensic experts investigate the crimescene. Make sure noone gets too close and destroys any evidence. Dismissed!_ "

The four officers left the bullpen and rushed to their cars making their way to the concert hall they had all been at the night before.

* * *

A very angry goat was looking at the pleading pile of despair in front of him. His henchmen had managed to mess up big time, and he did not tolerate incompetence. He did not enjoy killing, but if it was necessary to pursue his goal, his only goal infact, hesitation wasn't a trait of his character either.

" _I did everything you asked for boss_ ", pleaded the sheep lying in front of him, " _I shot the tiger right next to Gazelle, he attacked and killed her, and I tried to get away but I underestimated how fast a tiger could kill its prey and after being done with her he came after me, I only shot him in self defense!_ "

" _Do you know why I assigned this simple task to you?_ " the goat asked with a growl worthy of a lion.

" _Yes boss, of course boss, that's why I put the gun in her hand afterwards, they will think she shot him, noone will suspect it was me_ "

" _Silence!_ " The goat commanded. He was to hear no more of this, he knew the sheeps DNA would be all over that gun, and if the ZPD could identify his henchmen, that would put himself in danger. The only way to prevent this was to silence the sheep. Permanentely.

" _Please boss, I will do ._.",

But the goat never found out what the sheep would do, as a hole between his eyes made it hard to say any further words.

Satisfied with his own work, the goat called in two more of his many followers to remove the now lifeless body in front of him. A shiver of guilt overcame him, but a quick glance at a certain picture on his desk washed away his guilt and convinced him once more that what he did was right and necessary.


	2. An ongoing investigation

**Chapter 2 – An ongoing investigation**

All four officers were at a loss of words when entering the car. Since none of them knew what to say under these circumstances, they spent the beginning of the short drive to the concert hall in complete silence. Judy was sitting in the drivers seat and finding the fastest way through the streets of Zootopia that were crowded with mammals of all kinds getting to their jobs at this time of day. Nick would usually tease her about her driving, but today he sensed that even his exceptional personality wouldn't be enough to cheer up Judy.

Nick wasn't a huge fan of Gazelle himself, but he knew that the popstar was an idol for Judy and her death would get really close to her. Of course it also had an emotional effect on him, expecially since he had seen the now dead performer the day before.

Delgato and Fangmeyer sat in the rear of the car and while Nick couldn't really read Delgatos expression, the wolf seemed to be holding back tears himself.

 _"We will find whoever did this and bring them to justice!_ " Judy finally stated as a matter of fact. Nick was glad the silence was broken but couldn't come up with a sly response that would still be appropriate for the situation, so instead he just confirmed her statement with a nod of his head. He knew Judy would work night and day to find the criminal who had killed Gazelle.

They finally arrived at the concert hall and had an easy time finding the exact location of the crime, as a rather large crowd of people stood in front of an alley behind the concert hall. The alley was used as a back entrance so the performing artists didn't have to use the same doors as their many fans.

With both his background as a street hustler and his training as a police officer Nick scanned the area for anything that could give them a clue to solve this crime. Bogo hadn't assigned them to anything more than standing guard so far, but Nick was certain the Chief would assign his hero officer Judy Hopps to a case this important. Bogo always thought things through, so it was very likely he had sent them here as guards for now so they could take a first look at the scene of the crime.

Getting out of the car, Fangmeyer and Delgato quickly went to support two fellow officers that already tried to hold back the crowd of sightseers that had gathered in front of the destroyed entrance gate to the back alley. The four officers tried to clear the road so the forensic experts could get through as soon as they would arrive to the crime scene.

Meanwhile Nick and Judy walked into the alley to take a first glance and saw a rather horrific sight. Gazelle was lying in the alley in a red puddle, her neck being the source of this puddle. A part of her neck was missing, and bloody scratchmarks could be found all over her body. His many years in the streets had gotten Nick used to such sights, but even for him this was almost too much to stomach. Judy on the other hand had to look away after taking a quick glance at the body. Still, she didn't miss one very important detail: A gun lay in Gazelles hand.

Several meters closer to the entrence gate lay another body, that of a grown up male tiger. His clothing revealed that he was one of the dancers Nick and Judy hat seen performing with Gazelle the night before. He was lying face down but a hole at the back of his head was still clearly visible. Both his hands were also full of blood, most likely from attacking Gazelle.

Nick took a look of the surrounding area. The alley was between two buildings and ended with a wall on the other side, so the gate was the only way for a vehicle to come in. No security cameras were in the area. The only door along the alley led into the concert hall.

Taking a closer look at the tiger, Nick noticed another important detail: A trace of blue on the tigers shoulder. Nick pointed this detail out to Judy, who was trying here best not to freak out from the horrific site. They would have plenty of time to discuss what might have happened later, but right now in front of the crowd they did not want to start coming up with theories. Only one fact seemed clear: This tiger did not want to kill Gazelle, instead someone was still shooting with Nighthowlers even after Bellweathers imprisonment.

Seeing how Judy was in no state to think clearly right now, Nick walked around the alley looking for more details. He knew that the inside of the concert hall was filled with cameras, so the gunman must have come in through the now destroyed gate. This meant that there could be evidence on the gate, so it was of the highest priority to keep the bystanders from touching it.

" _Hey Carrots, we should get the people away from the gate_ ", Nick said after this realization.

Glad to have a reason to look in the other direction, Judy also went back to the gate. After the six officers together finally managed to get the crowd under control, the forensic experst arrived on the scene of the crime and started with their work. While guarding the gate, Judy noticed one final detail, a strain of white hair caught in the part of the gate that was broken open. It looked a lot like sheep's wool to Judy, so she called the forensic experts over to take a sample of the hair aswell. DNA testing would take a a few hours at least, but Judy had no intention of wasting all that time. Since both Nighthowlers and sheep's wool were found on the crimescene, there was a certain sheep in prison that could know a lot more about what had taken place the previous night. As soon as their guard duty would end, Judy was determined to talk to Bellwether.


	3. A dead end

**Chapter 3 – A dead end**

About an hour after the forensic experts had arrived at the crime scene, they were done with their job and the bodies of Gazelle and the dancer were loaded into a special coroners car to be brought into a laboratory for a dissection and further analyzation. The crowd of bystanders had slowly shrunken with nothing left to see and it was no longer necessary for 6 oficers to guard the location of the crime.

After they had managed to convince the last curious mammals to let police do their work, Judy and Nick were finally alone and could discuss what they had just witnessed.

" _Nick, I don't know what happened here but I will find out! Is it ok for you if I call Bogo and ask him to assign us to this case?"_ the bunny asked.

 _"_ _Of course carrots, I think Bogo wants us on this case anyways, otherwise why would he have chosen us to stand guard here?"_

Judy couldn't argue with that logic and so she took out her radio to talk to Bogo.

 _"_ _Chief, this is Officer Hopps, we have secured the location of the crime and the forensic experts are done with their job here. I would like to ask for you to assign me and Wilde to this case."_

 _"_ _Officer Hopps, I will grant you your wish. You and Officer Wilde will be the lead officers on this murder case. Anything else?"_ he responded without hesitation.

 _"_ _Yes Sir, since we found what looked like traces of Nighthowlers on the tiger's body and also sheeps wool at the broken gate, I request your permission to visit Bellwether in prison and question her about this crime. I am sure she is somehow connected to this, even though she couldn't have done it."_

 _"_ _Sonds like a plan officer, you have my permission to interrogate Bellwether right away, I will make the call to the prison and tell them to set her up for your arrival."_

 _"_ _Thank you Sir, we'll be on our way!"_

Nick and Judy made their way over to the police cruiser and got in. Zootopia's central prison was in Sahara Square, about half an hour from their current location, so they would have plenty of time to discuss what they just witnessed.

 _"_ _Its nice to finally meet some old friends again, isn't it?"_ Nick teased in an effort to cheer the bunny up.

 _"_ _Not now slick, we have work to do!"_ came the response. Nick admired her dedication to her job, never wasting a second if she had directed her mind on solving a crime.

 _"_ _So what do you think happened?"_ the rabbit asked her partner.

 _"_ _There is Nighthowlers on the tigers back, so someone is trying to make predators go savage again. The motive is also quite obvious: Gazelle tried to calm pred-prey relations on the hight of the first Nighthowlers case, she is known as a mammalian rights activist. Someone doesn't want us all to get along. But I think there's more to it. Did you notice how the savage tiger wasn't looking in Gazelles direction? He seemed to be headed the other way towards the gate. I have never seen a savage mammal run away from potential prey so he must have run towards someone else standing near the gate. That someone might have lost a bit of his wool when trying to run from the tiger._ _Also, I can't imagine Gazelle owning a gun. I think whoever shot the tiger with the Nighthowlers serum was then targeted by the tiger himself and shot the tiger in an effort to get away. That stupid criminal must have put the gun in Gazelles hand afterwards to make it look like she shot the tiger."_

The rabbit listened to her partner and had to agree with him. From the short looks she managed to take at the gruesome crimescene she had figured as much.

 _"_ _If that theory turns out to be true, Bellwethers conspiracy goes way deeper than we thought",_ the bunny finally responded, _"we must find out what she and whoever is working for her now are up to as soon as possible, before more tragedies like this can happen."_

 _We will figure this out just like we did with the first Nighthowlers case Judy. I promise we will take down whoever is responsible for this. Nothing Zootopias two heroe officers cant handle!"_

Judy frowned at Nick for calling them heroes, she never thought of herself as a hero and clearly their success in stopping Bellwether didn't stop whoever was behind this newest Nighthowler shooting. She would have said something about him using that word, but her mind was to focused on the case at hand.

 _"_ _We have two strong leads, Bellwether and whatever sheep left its pistol and its wool at the crimescene."_ Judy said in an effort to convince herself they could solve this case in time to prevent more savage attacks.

Nick hated to lower her optimism, but in his mind it wouldn't be all that easy to find the gunman. " _Carrots, whoever planned this chose the back alley for a reason: There are no cameras there. I doubt a sheep dumb enough to leave a pistol behind would have chosen such a good location. If I were a crimeboss and my henchman had just messed up like that, I'd make sure there is no connection between my henchman and me that police could find. I worry we wont find our gunman alive. Besides, I don't think Bellwether will cooperate. She already has a life sentence so there is nothing we could pressure her with to tell us what she knows."_

Judy hated to hear all this, but she had to admit his logic sounded proof.

" _Quite the optimistc fox today, aren't you?"_ she finally teased her partner.

Nick had a chuckle and responded _"I am pessimistic from long years of experience carrots, but we might still crack this case since I got my lucky charm bunny with me"_

For the first time since hearing of Gazelles death, a pained smile crept onto Judy's muzzle. For Nick this was enough though, he hated to see his partner in a bad mood so cheering her up always cheered him up aswell.

They arrived at the Prison soon after, and were lead into an interrogation cell by a prison guard.

In the cell, Bellwether sat with a wide smile on her face. She must have heard of the new Nighthowler shooting and to Nick and Judy her happiness all but confirmed that she knew more about this.

 _"_ _Well, well, well, if it isn't my two favorite officers again! I am so glad to see you here in my new home. What can I do for you today officers?"_ The sheep asked with a very sarcastic undertone.

 _"_ _I assume you know why we are here. There has been another Nighthowler shooting. Tell us all you know about it right now!"_ Nick demanded with his usual 'don't let them see that they get to you' face.

 _"_ _How terrible! But why would I know anything about that, I am locked in my cell all day and have no contact to the outside world! I am not sure why you think I could help you with this"_

Judy couldn't stand hearing any more of Bellwethers cynical sacrasm so she interrupted her:

" _Cut the bullshit, we found sheeps wool at the crime scene, so say what you know now or ..."_

Nick was surprised by her use of strong language.

" _Or what?"_ The sheep asked with an ever widening smile, _"Or you will lock me up in prison?"_

Judy realized her mistake right away, threats wouldn't work against a mammal that had nothing more to lose.

 _"_ _We could get you into solitary confinement if you don't comply"_ Nick finally bluffed even though there was no way for two normal police officers to actually change the accomodations of a prisoner.

 _"_ _Oh please do, I cant stand my fellow inmates messing up my nicely groomed wool all the time."_ From the look on her face it was clear to Nick and Judy that they had reached a dead end. There was no way they would get Bellwether to tell them anything even though it seemed too obvious she knew something.

Upon leaving the prison Judy received a call from the forensics department at Precinct One, informing them that the blue substance on the tiger was infact Nighthowlers serum, and that the DNA from the crime scene had been sequenced. The wool did in fact belong to the same sheep that had pulled the trigger of the gun. However, there was no match for the DNA in the Police's computer system.

Judy left out a long sigh after hearing these disheartening news.

 _"_ _I wish we could take Bellwether to Mr Big and threaten to ice her!"_ Judy finally said.

She didn't really mean it of course, but to her surprise Nick didn't laugh at her dark humor. Instead he looked like he had seen a ghost and finally responded:

 _"_ _I know you didn't mean it Carrots, but please don't joke about anything like this ever again!"_

Judy was buffeled by this response that seemed very out of character for Nick, but decided to not press the issue right now.

* * *

Back in her cell, Bellwether looked at a letter she had received this morning. The envelope was addressed to her, and on the inside only three words were written in black ink: ' _The work continues_ '. Below this short line of text, instead of a signature there was only a symbol: a capital P that had four little triangles drawn into it, so the arch of the P looked like it had fangs.


	4. At the bar

**Chapter 4 – At the bar**

It was custom for all police officers of Precinct One to meet at the Wild Horse Inn every monday evening. Judy had never gone there before, but after the events of the day she felt like some alcohol wouldn't be too bad of an idea. Nick didn't need much convincing either as he was very curious what Judy would be like when she was drunk and he was also looking forward to a blueberry cocktail with an extra shot of vodka in it.

After having no luck with Bellwether the two smallest officers of the force had returned to HQ to read the detailed reports from the forensics department. Sadly it didn't reveal much beyond what they already knew from the phonecall Judy had received outside the prison. It was all rather frustrating really, with no surveilance camera footage to study, no witnesses to talk to and no other clue as to who was behind Gazelles murder.

They had of course watched all security footage from within the concert hall, but everything seemed fine when Gazelle left through the backstage door around 4:30 in the morning, and there was no sound recording so they couldn't even pinpoint when the shooting must have taken place.

So all they knew now was that at some point between 4:30 in the morning and 6:30, when a passerby had found the two bodies, an unknown sheep attacked Gazelle and the tiger.

With this frustrating lack of clues occupying her mind, Judy walked into the bar for the first time in her life. Nick had been in the Wild Horse Inn before, but not very often since it was known as a meeting point for cops and in his past life he had no reason to frequently visit such a place.

The fox and the rabbit were both surprised to see Clawhouser and Bogo both sitting at a corner table of the Inn. Clawhouser did join his colleagues every now and then for a few drinks, but Bogo liked to keep professional distance from his officers so private life and work life would not mix.

And yet Bogo was sitting next to Clawhouser having all but lost his usual 'I don't care' mask. It was an open secret that Bogo was a huge fan of Gazelle himself, so her untimely departure from the world of the living must have also gotten close to him.

Clawhouser on the other hand was looking even worse. The fur in his face was ruffed and wet from tears and he was still slightly sobbing next to his boss. It was clear to anyone who knew Clawhouser that something that meant a lot to him had gone and left an empty pit in his heart.

After greeting a few other known faces in the bar, Judy and Nick went to the table of sadness and Nick asked _"Hey Chief, is it ok if we join you two?"_

Bogo nodded and Clawhouser tried to smile at them but failed miserably at forcing his facial muscles to form this expression.

The two smaller officers shared the only free seat at the table as they were used to from the bullpen, it was a chair made for much larger mammals so space was not an issue for them.

" _Did you… get him_ " Clawhouser managed to say between two sobs, Nick quickly summed up the events of the day to his colleague and admitted that they hadn't found out anything but the species of the gunman so far.

After Nicks explanation, the four fell silent for a while. The silence was only interrupted when a waiter came over to take their orders. Both Clawhouser and Bogo already had drinks so it was Nicks and Judys turn to order. Judy looked a bit puzzled at first, she had never been to a bar before so she had no idea what to get. She asked Nick, who she assumed had lots of experience with alcohol, what he would recommend her to get. Nick told the waiter to get a blueberry cocktail for himself and a carrot cocktail for his friend, and also ordered extra vodka in both their drinks.

Finally sensing a chance to overcome the silence, Nick asked the Chief _"Only beer for you, huh? I assumed a Buffalo of your stature would need something heavier to feel any effect?"_

 _"_ _Shut it Wilde, I don't usually drink anything, I just couldn't bear being alone this evening. Besides I don't think Hopps is used to to much alcohol either, if she has to take a day off tomorrow because you made her too drunk I'll cut it from your pay._ " came the slightly annoyed response.

Nick immediately regretted having asked the question, and desperately tried to come up with some other topic just so to break the sad silence that had once more befallen their table.

" _Well I guess at least you can still all see her in the Dance with Gazelle app._ " he finally said, his words were meant to comfort the other mammals but had the opposite effect, with Clawhouser once again collapsing his head on the table in a series of sobs, while Bogo looked at Nick ashamed and angry for speaking the open secret out aloud, and finally Judy glaring at him angrily.

* _Great job Wilde, you are just the best at offering comfort_ * Nick thought, annoyed with himself. He allowed silence to overcome the table once more.

" _Hey what do you call a Giraffe with dwarfism?"_ was his next try at starting a conversation, but all it earned him was Judy's elbow in his side.

" _Ouch!_ " Nick cried out in pain, and one glance at Judy told him to best not try to be funny again anytime soon.

Finally their drinks arrived and both fox and rabbit started slurping their respective beverages. Judy liked the taste a lot more than she assumed she would, as large amounts of something sweet covered up the unpleasant taste of the vodka in her carrot cocktail. Seeing how she had little experience with alcohol in her life so far, she got another one of the delicious orange cocktails right after finishing her first one. Both Bogo and Nick looked at her with a worried expression, so she explained:

 _"_ _Well I do want to forget some things I have seen today."_

 _"_ _I understand you carrots, but if we want to catch the gunman you need a clear head tomorrow_." Nick warned her.

 _"_ _Oh don't worry slick, I won't overdo it"_

At this moment the song that had played in the bar ended and the radio announcer spoke:

 _"_ _Today all of Zootopia mourns the loss of a brave mammal that has always stood up for peace and coexistance. While we will never fully understand what caused some insane criminal to murder her, this horrible crime will not make us forget what Gazelle has done for this city. So in the spirit of Gazelle I ask my fellow Zootopians to try to overcome the sadness that fills our hearts and work together to build the future Gazelle wanted us to live in. To achieve this dream, I will do what I can, I will try everything"_

With his final word Gazelles most famous song started playing, which caused Clawhouser to start sobbing once again. When the lyric "I want to try everything" finally blasted through the bar, Nick felt something he had only felt once before. Judy was _hugging him_! Unsure how to respond at first he could soon hear her sob aswell so he lightly returned the hug and tried once more to comfort her.

 _"_ _Hey its ok, well get the ones who did this!"_ he whispered in her ear. It seemed to cheer her up a little bit and they listened to the rest of the song together in each others embrace.

After the song was over, Judy didn't want to be in the bar any longer. She needed to be alone for a bit and so she left Nicks embrace, put some money on the table to pay for her drinks and got down from the chair.

" _Sorry guys, I think I'll go home now_ " Judy said. Still seeing the pain she felt in her eyes Nick told her _"Hey carrots, if you need someone to talk to, I'm there for you all the time."_

Judy slightly smiled at him and said her goodbye, soon after the three remaining mammals also got up and left the bar.

On her way home Judy couldn't help but continue to sob some more. Hearing 'Try everything' had just been too much after the day she had been through.

Nick on the other hand was occupied with a whole different type of thought on his way home. It had been the second time Judy had hugged hime, the first time was during the Nighthowler case when Judy had appologized to him under the bridge.

But this time was different. They had remained in each others embrace for several minutes until the song ended, and Nick wasn't quite sure how to interpret Judys actions yet.


	5. Sometimes all you need is a friend

**Chapter 5 – Sometimes all you need is a friend**

Judy arrived home after a 15 minute walk, as her place was only 2 km from the Precinct and she was a fast walker. The physical activity had helped her calm down a lot , and she was finally beginning to accept what had happened that day. The alcohol also did its part in making her temporarily forget the unfortunate events that had occurred. Since it had been a long day, she didn't bother to brush her teeth or take a shower and just collapsed on her bed right away.

After five minutes she had almost fallen asleep when her phone buzzed. It was her parents calling.

* _Great*_ Judy thought, _*that's the last thing I need right now*_

But she couldn't just refuse her parents call either, so she sighed, put on a not very convincing fake smile and picked up the call.

" _Hi mom and dad!"_ Judy tried to sound as cheerful as ever but didn't quite succeed.

 _"_ _Hey Judy, we just heard what happened. Are you ok_?"

 _"_ _Yes, you don't have to worry about me, I am fine"_

" _You don't sound fine Judy_ ", Bonny responded

" _Mom, you know Gazelle is …_ " Judy paused "... _was an idol of mine, so obviously I am sad about what happened._ " Judy was never good with hiding her emotions and so it was no use trying to keep them a secret in front of her parents. " _But I am a grown up women now and I didn't know her personally so I think I'll get through it"_

 _"_ _Hey that sounds great"_ Stu said, still not being convinced Judy told the truth. _"We just wanted to let you know we are always there for you"_

 _"_ _Yes I know Dad, thank you for calling me, I already feel much better, I have to get up early tomorrow so if you don't mind …"_

 _"_ _Just wait a second Judy",_ Bonny interrupted her, _"were you out drinking today?"_

Judy couldn't believe her parents were bringin this up right now.

 _"_ _Yes mum, I met with colleagues after work, I just thought a bit of socializing would do me good you know"_

" _Hey, Jude the dude is finally getting out a bit more, I didn't think the day would ever come!"_ Stu said cheerfully, " _Guess what Judy, we just met someone you might want to socialize with aswell today"_

Bonny gave Stu a disapproving look for having such horrible timing and bringing this up right now, and Judy already knew what her father was getting at.

 _"_ _Dad, not now!"_ Judy commanded with a very annoyed voice.

 _"_ _Ok its just he is also still single and he is goodlooking and he…"_

At this point Stu was interrupted by both females in the conversation shouting " _Stu!_ " and _"Dad!"_ at the same time.

 _"_ _Dad, really, I need to sleep now!"_ Judy was eager to finally end this unconfortable conversation.

" _Ok Judy, just, you take care alright. And call us whenever you want_." It was Bonny speaking again after Stu had just been spectacularely silenced.

" _Ok mum, I know, thank you and goodnight"_

Judy waited barely long enough to hear her parents response and then finally pressed the red button on her phone that would allow her to fall back to sleep.

 _"_ _Was that your parents?"_

Judy wanted to scream when she heard her neighbors. She really just needed some quite right now.

 _"_ _Yes, and its none of your business"_

She hoped it would silence them but her hope was in vain.

 _"_ _Oh are you sad because that popstar died? Isnt she like, your idol, or something? We hear you play her music all the time you know"_

Judy couldn't listen to anyone thinking they had to remind her of Gazelles death for another second, so without even responding she just got up and left her apartment. A minute later she stood in the street and was unsure what to do next. She didn't wanna spend money on a hotel room for the night, and she didn't have any relatives she could go to in the city either.

* _Where can I go_?* Judy thought to herself. She was tired and emotionally worn out and just wanted to get a good nights rest as soon as possible.

Finally it dawned on her, she had one friend that had a place in Zootopia. Certainly he wouldn't mind her sleeping on his couch for the night. She had never been to his place before but she knew his adress.

Her usual self would have thought this was madness, but the alcohol and the state of mind she was in made it seem like a good idea, so he took out her phone and selected Nick whom she had stored as a favorite contact.

" _Hey carrots whats biting you"?_

 _"_ _Hey Nick remember when you said I could call anytime?"_

 _"_ _Of course carrots. What do you want to talk about?"_

 _"_ _Well actually I wanted to ask you for a different favor."_

 _"_ _How can I help you?"_

 _"_ _Nick could I come over and sleep on your couch tonight?"_

 _"_ _Carrots are you sure you didn't drink too much this evening?"_

 _"_ _Nicholas Wilde, whatever you think, stop thinking it! I just need a quite place to sleep because my neighbors wont shut up!"_

 _"_ _Oh. Well yes sure. I wasn't thinking about.."_

 _"_ _Nick just shut up!",_ she interrupted him, " _oh and thank you, I'll be at your place in 10 minutes_."

With that she ended the call and had a chuckle at the way Nick had acted.

* * *

Meanwhile Nick was in the hurry of his life to clean up his place. Usually noone but Finnick would ever visit him, and Nick didn't care what Finnick thought about his tidyness. With Judy however it was a different story.

He was just finished stuffing everything in his cupboard when the door rang. He opened it up and greeted Judy, trying not to pant from the hurry he had been in.

Judy had another chuckle at the silly fox and greeted him. " _Hey Nick, nice of you to clean up for me but you really didn't have to. After all you are doing me a favor right now."_

 _"_ _Hey Judy come in, and I'll have you know I just did my evening workout, my place is always tidied up!"_

 _"_ _Of course, and I assume if I opened your cupboard I would find perfect order within it?"_

 _"_ _Smart bunny."_

 _"_ _Dumb fox."_

 _"_ _Can this dumb fox get you anything"_ he asked while entering his living room with her, " _Tea or carrot juice or_ ?"

 _"_ _A glass of carrot juice would be really nice. Thank you!"_

As Nick walked to his kitchen to get her the drink, Judy sat down on his couch and took a look around his flat. It had a carpet floor and green walls of the same color as the shirt he always wore. Besides the couch there were two cupboards, a small table and a small old TV in his living room, and everything had a thick layer of dust on it. On one of the walls was a picture of a much younger Nick standing next to an older female fox, whom Judy assumed to be his mother. Nick had never talked about his family, but it wasn't a topic Judy wanted to bring up now either.

Nick returned with a glass of carrot juice in one hand and a glass of what had to be blueberry juice in the other hand. Seeing this Judy noticed something.

 _"_ _Hey Nick, do many foxes actually like carrot juice?"_

 _"_ _I have never met a fox that liked it, why would…"_ he almost choked when realizing what he had just said. _*Great job brain, why don't you just confess all your feelings right now?*,_ Nick rebuked himself.

" _Its ok slick, you can explain it to me later_ " Judy said with a giggling voice while taking the glass from his hand.

Nick sat down next to her and hoped his red fur would cover up just how red his face had turned at this moment.

" _So your neighbors wont let you sleep huh?_ " he finally asked to change topics.

 _"_ _Yeah everyone seems to want to remind me what happened today. Talking about, I would be really thankful if we could not discuss it any more."_

 _"_ _Sure Carrots, so what do you want to talk about then_?"

" _To be honest I just want to sleep right now."_

" _Oh of course, I'll get you a pillow and a blanket and leave you alone then."_

As Nick left the room once again, Judy had to think about the moment in the bar that day again, how much it calmed her to hug Nick.

Nick returned and put the blanket and pillow next to her.

" _Good night Carrots"_ he said and turned around to leave for his bedroom. Just then he felt a paw grabbing his arm.

" _Nick, could you stay with me just a bit longer maybe?_ "

" _Well… sure_ " he said and sat down next to his friend again. To his surprise Judy unwrapped the blanket and threw it around the both of them. She then snuggled up to his side and closed her eyes.


	6. A lesson in history

**Chapter 6 – A lesson in history**

Judy really had to sneeze. Something was itching in her nose horribly. She woke herself up with her own loud " _A-chui!"_ sound. The first thing she noticed was that there was fur in her nose. Or rather that her whole face rested on some fur. Someone else's red fur at that.

Shocked and unsure where she was she quickly sat up. The next feeling she had was her head feeling dull and heavy. She vaguely remembered drinking lots of carrot cocktails the night before and then walking home, only to leave her home again and walk to the flat of

" _NICK!_ " she shouted in embarassment, now fully aware where she was. It was the name of the pillow she had just slept on so well.

 _"_ _Good morning carrots, thanks for the gentle wake up call"_ came his muffled response.

" _Nicholas Piberius Wilde, could you explain to me what happened here?"_ She jumped up from the couch in shock at the realization of the situation she was in and looked at Nick with an accusing look.

Nick sat up and unwrapped himself from the blanket. To Judys relief they were both fully clothed and she still had a vague recollection that nothing serious had happened after all.

 _"_ _I can explain carrots, you called me yesterday asking for a place to stay for the night and then…"_

Judy interrupted him: _"Its ok Nick, I remember what happened. Thanks again for letting me stay here for the night."_

 _"_ _Your … welcome?"_ the fox was at a loss of words.

 _"_ _Just no word of what happened last night to anyone ok?"_ Judy asked with a blush creeping on her face.

" _Sure carrots, I'll be silent as a grave!"_ he said, and immediately regretted his words when he saw sadness mixing into Judys facial expression at the mention of the word 'grave'.

To direct her thoughts elsewhere, he quickly added " _Want some breakfast?"_

* * *

After they had eaten together they had to get ready for work and soon they both walked towards Precinct One since neither of them could drive a police cruiser home the night before.

 _"_ _Hey Nick, thanks for everything, you actually cook quite well",_ Judy complimented him _, "those blueberry pancakes were super delicious."_

 _"_ _I am a fox of many talents"_

 _"_ _Yes and very humble!",_ Judy chuckled, _"I would like to return the favor."_

 _"_ _What do you have in mind"_ the fox asked

" _Well I was thinking maybe we could meet again this evening in the park for a picknick?"_

 _"_ _Judy is this gonna be a … hmpf"_ was all he managed to say as her paw on his muzzle stopped him from saying anything further.

" _Its gonna be a picknick yes"_ she quickly responded feeling her face heating up again _. "A picknick among friends and colleagues. So what do you say?"_

"S _ure sounds great_ " he responded.

 _"_ _Great, I'll bring all the food and drinks and everything so you just show up at 5 at the pond in the park next to Precinct One and bring yourself ok?"_

 _"_ _Ok"_ he cheered.

* * *

Upon entering Precinct One, Clawhouser, who seemed to finally be in a state of mind again where he could talk like a normal mammal, told them to immediately go to Bogos office.

 _"_ _A body of a sheep was found last night in a river in Savannah Central. His DNA matches that of the gunman from yesterday. Forensics has already thoroughly examined his body. He was killed with a gunshot to the head from a short distance. Other than that nothing is out of the ordinary with his body. I want both of you to take a look at where his body was found."_

 _"_ _Yes Chief"_ they both responded.

 _"_ _Here are all the files_ " Bogo said as he handed them two identical folders.

 _"_ _If you open them up on the first page there is one more important detail. A tattoo was found on his head below the wool, it is a strange symbol and I have no idea what it means. After you are done investigating the location where the body was found, I want you to go to Zootopia University and talk to an expert of Semiotics to explain what the symbol means to you. Dismissed!"_

Judy and Nick both looked at the picture of the tattoo the sheep had while walking out of Bogos office. It looked a lot like a capital P. But not a modern design of a capital P, rather like something from a medieval manuscript. There were also four weird triangels within the P. Neither of them had any clue what it meant though.

* * *

The location the body was found in was just as much of a dead end as they had feared it would be. It was at the edge of a cliff near a part of the coastal road that was barely ever used, with no cameras or houses nearby, so there was little chance to find any witnesses or evidence. Whoever was responsible for this killing clearly was thinking his actions through, and it made the investigation very frustrating.

* * *

After they left the cliffside with a dire mood because of the lack of new evidence, they made their way over to Zootopia University to meet with Professor Umbearto, an Ice Bear that was considered Zootopias most senior expert on Semiotics.

They entered his office in a hurry, full of curiosity as to what the weird symbol could mean. The large bear took one look at the photo they showed him, smiled and began to speak:

" _Mrs Hopps, Mr Wilde, before I can explain to you what this symbol means I have to ask how much you know about the history of Zootopia?"_

Judy and Nick exchanged a puzzled glance, after which Judy began to speak first:

 _"_ _Professor Umbearto, to be honest history was never a subject that intrested me all that much. I did a short play in school about how predators and prey first started coexisting, but beyond that general knowledge I don't know anything really."_

 _"_ _I fear that I know even less than Carrots here and, while history is definitely a fascinating subject Professor, we are in a bit of a hurry right now and it would be really kind if you could just tell as what the symbol means"_

 _"_ _Alright_ " the large bear said _, " I will do just that. But to truly underssstand what the symbol means I need to tell you at least a little bit about Zootopias history first. Sounds good?"_

 _"_ _Sure"_ Judy responded.

 _"_ _Ok you know the basics of how we all came to stop hunting one another five thousand years ago, but as I am sure you both know, that did not exactly end all hostility between predators and prey. After a first period of relative coexistance the relations between the two groups got to an all time low around 500 years ago. The city Zootopia didn't exist back then, and no mammal had even set foot on this land so far at the time. Then a Bull called Christopher Cowlumbus discovered the part of the world that Zootopia would later come to be built on."_

 _"_ _I think I heard of him once!"_ Judy said, " _Isnt there still a national holiday each year to celebrate his heroic actions?"_

 _"_ _That is correct",_ the Professor reponded, " _but heroic is no word I would ever use to describe Cowlumbus. Soon after discovering this land, Cowlumbuses crew began exploiting it. I might add that all his crewmen were prey mammals because Cowlumbus personally hated predators and thought of them as inferior beings."_

Nick sighed upon hearing this. Thinking of predators as inferior was an idea he was all too familiar with.

" _Cowlumbus was also a very greedy mammal, and he couldn't find enough prey animals to follow him to the new world and help him exploit the land. Needing a workforce, he began raiding the coast of the old world and stealing babies from predator parents. He brought them to the new world as slaves and forced them to work for him under horrible conditions. To make sure they would always remember what they were, he branded the babies with the very symbol that you have just shown me._

Judy was horrified by what she just heard, she knew history wasn't always kind but what the Professor had just told her seemed unbelievable. Nick on the other hand had a pained expression on his face, but no problem imgining the horrors he just heard about having actually happened.

While Judy had never cared much about history before, now her curiosity took the best of her and she couldn't wait for the Professor to tell them more of what had happened.

" _As you might have guessed, the symbol is a capital P. It stands for "Praedator", or "Predator" as we would say it today._ _The four triangels you see are meant to represent the fangs we predators have, and they should warn anyone that saw the tattoo that they were standing in front of a dangerous mammal that would have eaten them in less civilized times."_

 _"_ _But Professor, the Symbol was found on a sheep and not on a predator. Why would a sheep today wear this centuries old symbol?"_ Judy couldn't hold back her curiosity anymore.

" _Well yes_ ", the Professor responded, " _after the AFM or Alliance of Free mammals had won the First Great Mammalian War 200 years ago, slavery was of course abolished and the city of Zootopia was founded as a symbol for a future of true coexistance between predators and prey. The many districts of different climates were established soon after to allow mammals from all over the world to live together in one city, regardless of their differences. The term "city on a hill" does not just refer to downtown Zootopias geographical location on a hill, it also refers to Zootopia as the role model for true coexistance. It is a dream worth dreaming, and I assume that Gazelle was murdered exactly for sharing this idea."_

 _"_ _We havent even told you this had anything to do with Gazelles murder yet!"_ Judy demanded to know how the Professor could possibly know this connection.

" _No worries miss Hopps, it is utterly impossible for me to be part of the group that committed this crime, because I am a predator as you can see. The group you are searching for is the Cow Clan. It was founded soon after the Alliance Victory in the FGMW by speciecists that couldn't live in this new world without slaves and prejudice. The Cow Clan has tried to worsen predator - prey relations ever since, and commited countless terror attacks. Nighthowlers just seems to be their newest way of trying to achieve this goal. The 'Praedator' tattoo is now a symbol of allegience to the Cow Clan, every member gets it in an entrance ritual where they also swear to continue the work of Cowlumbus, the enslavement of all predators. Their motto is 'The work continues' for this very reason."_

 _"_ _Professor, might I ask why a sheep can be a member of the Cow Clan?"_ Nick asked.

" _It is not named after the species of cows, but after Cowlumbus, who is worshipped as a heroe in the Clan. They don't discriminate against anyone, as long as that someone is a prey mammal. All prey mammals can join the Clan in fact."_

 _"_ _Professor thank you so much for everything you just told us, it might really help in solving Gazelles murder and saving the lives of many innocent mammals. One last question, do you know anything about where we could find the Cow Clan today?"_ Judy asked.

" _Sorry, but I have no idea where to find them, and if I knew I would always keep a hundred kilometers between me and that place._

 _"_ _Again, thank you so much professor Umbearto!"_ Nick said, and the two officers left the room with plenty of information to process.

* * *

On their drive back to Precinct One both were deep in thought, until Judy finally asked: " _Can you believe it Nick? We are working against a hate group that wants to enslave all predators just for being predators!"_

 _"_ _Judy, if you had lived my live you would have no problem imagining someone could hate predators this much."_ He said with a pained expression on his face.

Judy was of course curious what might have happened in Nicks past that made him think this way, but seeing how much pain it caused him to think about it all, she decided not to ask about it. One thing seemed clear though: There must have been an even darker episode in his years on the streets, worse than the muzzle incident he had told her about, something he was not willing to tell anyone.


	7. Confessions in the park

**Chapter 7 – Confessions in the park**

Judy had brought a large basket and a comfortable blanket the two mammals were now sitting on. The surface of the pond next to them was illuminated by the setting evening sun. Both were now in civilian clothing, as they had quickly gone home after their shifts ended to prepare for the occasion.

Judy hadn't unpacked everything from the basket yet, but Nicks nose already told him that blueberries were definitely in there. And not just store bought ones either, this intense sweet smell could only originate from fresh blueberries from the Hopps farm.

Since there were no times in the last couple of days in which Judy could have gone home to pick them, Nick was unsure how she managed to bring his favorite kind of fruit on this day, did she ask her parents to send them? Had Judy planned to invite him and gotten the blueberries just for him? These questions would have to remain unanswered for now.

 _"_ _Do you want to know what I got in the bottom of my basket Nick?"_ Judy finally asked.

 _"_ _I would recognize that smell a kilometer against the wind Carrots, you brought some original Hopps farm blueberries haven't you?"_

 _"_ _I keep forgetting how amazing fox noses are."_

 _"_ _Well my tastebuds are just as amazing and they can't wait for these juicy delights!"_

Judy took an expecially large and well formed blueberry out of her basket and held it into Nicks direction. When he wanted to take it though, she quickly closed her hand and didn't allow him to get it.

 _"_ _Not so fast slick. You have to earn it first"_

Sensing that this was going to be fun, Nick obeyed her and in as innocent a voice as he could muster he asked _"What tasks do I have to fulfill for my master?"_

 _"_ _You just have to answer a few questions. Nothing more. But you have to promise to be honest"_

 _"_ _Carrots do you so much as suggest that I am ever dishonest?."_

Both had a little chuckle over this statement.

 _"_ _Alright I will be honest. Scouts honor. Ask right away."_

 _"_ _Nick why did you take me to Mystic Springs back then?"_

The question caught him by surprise. But he wasn't going to break his promise.

 _"_ _You know why Judy. We got crucial information for the Nighthowlers case."_

" _That is the whole reason?"_

 _"_ _Well I also wanted to annoy you and show you what your motto of 'everyone can be everything' can mean for different mammals"_

 _"_ _Good fox."_ She praised him, and gave him the blueberry finally. _"But that's not my motto."_

 _"_ _Really? What is it then?"_

 _"_ _Try Everything"_

Nick immediately knew he had to take the conversation elsewhere if he didn't want Judy to be sad again. And he most definitely didn't want that.

 _"_ _Judy have you seen your parents lately?"_ he finally asked in an effort to change topics and maybe find out how and why she got those blueberries.

 _"_ _Why would you ask?"_

 _"_ _I am just curious since bunnys usually live in large families how you manage to live alone far away from them?"_

 _"_ _Well we have a video call often so I see them quite frequently. Infact they just called yesterday evening. And I'm not a little kid anymore as you might have noticed slick, I do quite well on my own. But since you brought it up Nick, there is something else I want to ask you if that's ok?"_

 _"Will I get another blueberry_ _?"_

 _"_ _You can have the whole lot of them for one more honest answer."_

 _"_ _So whats the question?"_

 _"_ _Well you know Nick when I was at your place last night I took a look around your flat and all your furniture and stuff."_

 _"_ _Mhm. Did you like it?"_

 _"_ _Yeah sure but I don't really wanna talk about the furniture. There was one thing in particular that cought my intrest."_

 _"_ _Being…?"_

 _"_ _The only picture you have on your wall."_

Nicks facial expression immediately got sad and defensive. It was clear that this was a topic he didn't like talking about.

 _"_ _What about that picture?"_ He finally asked with a pained grimace.

 _"_ _Nick I have told you everything about my family and it has over 300 members. And all I know about your family is that your mother bought you a scouts uniform when you were still a child. Don't you think it's time I knew a bit more about your past and your family now that we are parners in the ZPD?"_

Nick got up from the picknick blanket, swallowed down all his emotions and put on his usual 'Don't let them see that they get to you' mask that he hadn't worn in Judys presence ever since they solved the Nighthowlers case together. With a lack of any emotion he simply answered _"No."_ and started walking away.

Judy sprung up and shouted after him: _"Nick! I'm sorry. We don't have to talk about your family. Just please, come back!"_ When he showed no response at all, she thought about running after him but decided that it was his choice to leave her behind if he wanted to.

Judy sat back down and started crying. _*You dumb bunny, why did you think you had to pressure him if he is clearly so uncomfortable with this topic?*_ But amidst her feeling of guilt there was also a part of her that blamed Nick for her state. What could be so terrible about his past that even a mention of his family made the fox walk away? Why couldn't he just tell her he didn't want to talk about it and act like a grownup?

Nick heard the bunny crying behind him and guilt mixed in with the pain he felt at any mention of his past life. But breaking the rabbits heart was still the preferable option over discussing his past. It was the reason why Finnick was his only real friend. Whenever he got too close to anyone else, they asked about his past sooner or later, and that was usually when Nick would stop wanting to be friends with them. Finnick however never asked any such questions. He probably just couldn't give a damn about Nicks life which made him the best possible friend in Nicks mind. Now that Judy had brought it up, he wasn't sure how to respond really. Nick knew he would see her again the next day at work, so he couldn't just break contact like he had done so many times before if he wanted to keep his job. He would have to tell her something tomorrow after what he just did, but he had no idea what to tell her.


	8. See what I've become

**Authors note: I wrote the part where Nick talks about his past while listening to the song "See what I've become" by Zack Hemsey (And named the chapter after this song obviously). If this is your kind of music, I highly recommend listening to that song while you read the conversation about Nicks past (which starts around halfway into the chapter)**

* * *

 **Chapter 8 – See what I've become**

Judy always got up early and full of energy, she had never been late for her job because of this habit. She couldn't even remember ever being late for school or anything really in her life. It was just natural for bunnies to be up early and to be filled with energy even in the earliest hours of the day. Her partner on the other hand was a different kind of mammal. Nick needed _lots_ of strong coffee in the morning to be awake enough for anything. Because of this, Judy usually waited in front of Precinct One for her partner so they could walk in together.

It was no different this morning. Judy was already waiting for several minutes and after the events of the last evening she was unsure if he would even show up at all. Five minutes before their shift started, she could finally make out the familiar red furred predator approaching her. He once again wore that special 'don't let them see that they get to you' mask he was so good at. Judy wondered if he had ever played poker before, because with that mask of his no opponent would stand a chance, but it was no question to ask him right now.

 _"_ _Ready for work partner?"_ Judy asked him.

 _"_ _Yeah I'm fine lets get in"_ he answered with a faked smile.

Judy found his response weird. She hadn't even asked if he was fine. If Judy hadn't known him for so long she would have taken his smile for a real one, but now it was clear to her that Nick was not 'fine'.

" _Ok_ " she responded with a puzzled look.

They both walked into their workplace and were immediately called into Bogo's office.

 _"_ _I know you don't like talking to the press much, Officer Hopps, but I need you two to speak to ZNN today."_ The buffalo stated. It was an order and not an offer.

 _"_ _About what Sir?"_

 _"_ _Abot the tattoo you learned about yesterday and what it means. We will make the 'Praedator' symbol public and ask the general population for help identifying any members of the Cow Clan. We need to know if anyone has seen the symbol anywhere else, as we currently have no idea where this hate group is hiding and we don't know a single living member of it. If any civilians know members of this group it could give us a new trace in the murder of Gazelle. So you two will show this symbol to the world and tell them to share anything they know with us. Is that understood?"_

 _"_ _Yes Sir"_ they both responded in unison and were dismissed.

On their way to the the podium the ZPD used for any public statements, Judy got really nervous.

 _"_ _Um, Nick, could you maybe do the talking? You know what happened last time I talked to Journalists, and I would rather avoid a repeat of that. Expecially since this once again concerns predator – prey relations."_

 _"_ _No Problem, Carrots.",_ and with that Nick stepped on the podium and explained the meaning of the symbol to the world like Bogo had told them to, pleading the public for any hints.

Since it was a live broadcast, they were both assigned to sit in their office and wait for any incoming calls about what had just been shown on TV right after the press conference ended. This meant they would likely spend the rest of the day together in a room, and Judy didn't want to spend a whole day with this emotionless version of Nick, so she decided to once again try and apologize for what she had asked the day before.

 _"_ _Nick?"_

 _"_ _Hmmm?"_

 _"_ _Sorry for yesterday. I won't ever ask about your past or your family again. Just please stop acting as if everything was fine. I can see that nothing is fine Nick. If you want to be angry with me I understand that. But please talk to me normal again."_

Nick let out a long sigh and then took a deep breath.

 _"_ _Judy you shouldn't apoplogize. I should. I treated you horribly and I am sorry for that. I shouldn't have walked away. You deserve better than this stupid fox. It's just… , I haven't talked to anyone about these topics in forever and I don't know how to talk about them anymore."_

 _"_ _As I said Nick, you really don't need to tell me if you don't want to"_

 _"_ _Yes I need to Carrots. I want you to know why I acted the way I acted yesterday. And you deserve to know about my family. The truth is, I don't have a family Carrots."_

 _"_ _I am so sorry to hear that."_

 _"_ _You don't need to be. I never met my father, but from the few things my mother told me about him I wouldn't want to meet him either. With my mother howerver it is a different story. She is a kind and caring mammal. She taught me to be a good kid and I was giving my best, but after the muzzle incident I told you about I started my life as a street hustler and did…"_

Nick paused. Judy could see tears forming in the corners of Nicks closed eyes while he told someone about his past for the first time in more than 15 years.

" _unforgivable things._ " he continued, _"I was too ashamed about my life. I knew that I would see disappointment in my mothers eyes if I went back to her. I knew that I was a horrible mammal at that point and I just couldn't.."_

He took another little pause and tears were now wettening the fur below his eyes.

 _"_ _I couldn't let her see what I've become"_

Judy couldn't bear seeing her friend in such misery for another second, so she sprung up and jumped on Nick, embracing him in a hug to cheer him up just a little bit.

 _"_ _So I haven't talked to mom in 15 years. I haven't seen her in 15 years. I know I would only break her heart even more if showed up at her place. She mustn't know what a terrible mammal I am."_

The last part was only a whisper but with Judy hugging him it was still loud enough for her to hear.

Nick stopped talking and tried his best to stop crying.

 _"_ _Nick, the greatest hustle you ever performed is the one you played on yourself. You are NOT a terrible mammal Nick. You are a police officer now, you live on the right side of the law. Whatever you once were, you are no longer Nick. You are a kind hearted, good mammal. And you are my friend. I will not let you do this to yourself you stupid fox. We will visit your mother together, and If I have to taze you and drag you to her doorstep, I will do so. But you will stop making your life terrible and see your mother again!"_

 _"_ _Judy I…"_

She put a paw on his muzzle and stopped whatever he tried to say.

 _"_ _No excuses Officer Wilde, we will do this together. I cannot force you to be happy but I certainly wont let you continue to do this to yourself. So no more of all this. We WILL visit your mom Nick. And not in some distant future, but NOW! Right after work today we'll go see her! You have to try to make your own life better!"_

Judy let go of his muzzle giving him a chance to respond. Sensing that resistance was futile, he said:

 _"_ _It seems a certain bunny wants me to try everything. Ok carrots, I'll visit her with you. I think she still lives in the same district I grew up in. but I can't promise I will be happy. And I don't think she will be either with the way my life has gone. If I were her I wouldn't wanna see me after all these years."_

 _"_ _She is your mother Nick. She will be overjoyed to see you."_

 _"_ _We will see."_


	9. A mother's love

**Chapter 9 – A mother's love**

Nick and Judy had spent the rest of the day waiting for an incoming call about the ZNN broadcast, but noone had come forward all day long. It really seemed the Cow Clan was hiding its traces well. But that wasn't on Nicks and Judys minds right now. Right now they were walking through one of the most run down areas in all of Zootopia to visit Mrs. Wild.

Judy was shocked from the state of the neighborhood Nick was leading her through. This certainly wasn't a place where kids should grow up, and it once again reminded her how much of a struggle Nicks childhood must have been.

Nick didn't even know his mothers phone number, so the plan was to just walk to Nicks childhood house and try to find her there. Knowing how hard it was for a fox to get a job in Zootopia, Nick was sure his mother hadn't moved away to a fancier neighborhood.

Judy noted Nick was starting to shake. They had to be pretty close she concluded, and her suspicion was confirmed when Nick stopped in front of one of the houses.

House was maybe an overstatement. It was more of a shed, and didn't really stick out from any of the other rundown places around. Judy had only seen such poverty in occasional TV spots asking for donations for less fortunate parts of the world, but she never knew Zootopia had a district looking like this.

 _"This is where I grew up carrots. Welcome to the Wilde family home."_ Nicks whole body was visibly shaking as he stood on the sidewalk in front of the house he was so familiar with and yet hadn't seen in such a long time.

Seeing that his knees probably wouldn't manage to carry him the final few steps towards his mothers house, Judy quickly approached the door and knocked since there was no bell, before Nick could change his mind and walk away again.

The door opened and an elderly vixen greeted Judy with a warm smile. _"Hello how can I help you?"_

 _"Good day Mrs. Wilde. My name is Judy Hopps but I am not here for myself today. I am here because my friend wanted to see you."_

 _"Your friend?"_ the vixen asked with a puzzled look. Judy stepped aside and pointed to the shivering bundle of nervous red fur that was still standing on the sidewalk.

 _"Your son, Nick."_ Judy said with a cheerful grin. But Mrs. Wilde didn't hear her anymore as she was storming towards her son and embracing him in the kind of hug only a loving parent can give.

 _"Nicholas!"_ she cried out with tears of joy in her eyes and hugged him stronger as if whe was afraid to lose him again.

 _"Oh Nick I cant believe it! You're still alive!"_

 _"Mom.. if you.. want to.. keep it that way.. please stop.. suffocating me"_ he said devoid of breath but with the happiest smile Judy had ever seen on his face.

Both foxes just stood there hugging one another for several minutes and exchanged expressions of affection before Judys presence was once again noted.

 _"Come in you two. We have so much to talk about"_ Nicks mother finally said after letting go of her son.

The three mammals entered Nicks childhood home and Mrs. Wilde pointed them towards the couch in the room to sit down. Both were offered beverages and after putting them on the table in front of them Nicks mother sat down in the Armchair next to the couch.

 _"Nicholas where have you been all these years? Last I heard you got acquainted with some notorious gang and after that no more word of you for 15 years. I imagined the worst things must have happened. Why did you never contact me Nickey? And who are you exactly Misses Hopps? And how did you finally convince my Son to come back to me? And thank you Mrs. Hopps."_

The two partners were a bit overwhelmed with the amount of questions and since the last few of them had been directed towards Judy, she began talking first.

 _"As I said I am a friend of Nick, Mrs. Wilde. I met him on my first case while working for the ZPD. Nick helped me solve it and joined the force aswell. We work as partners now, and I demanded of Nick that he would visit you after I heard he hadn't talked to you in so many years, Mrs. Wilde."_

 _"Its Vivian, Mrs. Hopps."_

 _"Judy"_

 _"Judy. And thank you. Thank you so much for bringing my son back!" Nick you are a police officer now? I am so proud! You must tell me everything!"_

 _"Mom I would like to start by saying that I am so sorry! …"_

After that, Nick told Vivian in detail about everything that had happened in the last fifeteen years, all the way up to earlier that same day when Judy convinced him to go visit her. After this long story, interrupted by several times that Vivian started crying, she in turn told her son what had happened in her life. She had managed to get several small jobs and kept herself afloat that way.

One thing Judy noted in Nicks summary of his life was that while he admitted that he had worked for Mr. Big for three years, he said nothing at all about what work exactly he had done for the crime boss. This was surprising as Nick even told his mother details about many other less than legal ways he had earned money over the years. Judy was curious of course, and decided she would ask him about it at some point.

It had become night when the two foxes were finally finished updating one another about the time they were seperated.

After Nick had promised he would visit her again soon and they had exchanged phone numbers so they could talk at any time, Nick and Judy had to finally leave as they would have to get up early once again the following day. So after several more hugs the two were finally on their way home.

 _"Thank you Judy."_ Nick simply stated while they were walking home. Judy had never seen the fox in a better mood.

 _"See slick, I told you it would all be fine. That's what mothers are like."_

 _"I know my mother is like this. I always knew she is like this. I might have tried to convince myself of something else for years but deep down I always knew my mother. Judy I don't know how I can ever thank you for what you did for me today. If there is ever anything I can do for you."_

 _"I know Nick. It's okay"_

 _"How could I have been this stupid? I really don't feel like any amount of apologies to you or my mom could ever be enough. I am so sorry about all of this!"_

A wide grin formed on Judys face as she pulled a very familiar object out of her pocket. She pushed the little button on her carrot pen and Nicks voice appeared: _"I am so sorry about all of this!"_

 _"See Nick, no need for even more apologies, if I ever need to hear you apologize again I can always just play this"_

 _"Sly bunny_ " he chuckled.

" _Dumb fox"_


	10. Safety of peace?

**Chapter 10 – Safety of Peace?**

Thomas Pairhooves was torn inside. The ZNN broadcast showing the "Praedator" symbol he knew so well had confirmed his suspicion that his former boss was behind the murder of Gazelle. Thomas had quit his Job for that damned goat after finding out what the goat had planned with the Cow Clan, but since the Job he had worked wasn't legal, he couldn't report his boss without risking arrest. So he had just gone on to live his own live and tried to forget his past. But that TV broadcast had brought forward many uncomfortable memories to the stag. He knew what the Clan wanted to achieve and he knew Gazelle was just the first of many steps in achieving their goal. They wanted to provoke a civil war between predators and prey. And since prey outnumbered predators 10:1 there was no question who would win such a war.

Thomas didn't share the views of the Cow Clan anymore, but he knew perfectly well how dangerous they were. If he wanted to prevent a Civil War, he had to talk to police now. But that would mean he could go to prison if the cops found out about his past. And as horrible as it was for him to imagine going to jail, only seeing his wife and daughter during visiting hours, all that didn't frighten him as much as another thought.

What truly frightened him was what the Cow Clan would do to him and his family if they found out he told the cops about them. It was a decision the deer was unable to make, as both options would make his world fall apart. Peace in the country or safety for his family? The freedom and happiness of millions of predators or the safety and happines of his wife and daughter?

He hadn't slept for one second last night and was still sitting awake in his bed, adrenaline constantly rushing through his veins for the last 24 hours straight.

Finally he decided that he had to do _something_ to stop the Cow Clan. If he only dropped the cops a little hint and didn't tell them anything too specific, maybe they found out the rest by themselves and noone would ever know he had anything to do with all of it?

It seemed like the only sane option he could take. So he picked up his phone, left his house and dialed a number he didin't think he would ever dial in his life.

* * *

Nick had come into ZPD Headquarters with the widest smile that morning. They were both once again assigned phone duty on the hopes that this second day would finally bring forward any hints from the population. After they sat down in their office, Nick gave Judy a big bar of carrot flavored chocolate as a thank you for the previous day. Judy was now happily munching on the sweet delight while waiting for the phone to ring, although since they had gotten zero hints the day before she wasn't all that hopeful it would ring today either.

And then the phone rang.

Judy had never picked up a call faster than this one.

 _"_ _Hello this is officer Judy Hopps with the ZPD. How can I help you."_ she said with her mouth still full of chocolate.

 _"_ _Hello this is… a concerned citizen. I saw the ZNN broadcast yesterday and I have seen the 'Praedator' sign before"_

 _"_ _That's great Sir!"_ Judy cheered _, "Now if you could please tell me your name and address, aswell as your phone number since you are calling from a suppressed number, so we can keep in contact?"_

 _"_ _I am afraid that wont be possible!"_

 _"_ _Sir we need contact details before we can take your statement"_

 _"_ _As I said that wont be possible."_

 _"_ _Sir if you are afraid for your own wellbeing or the wellbeing of your family the ZPD can provide a safe location and a new Identity since we are dealing with a very dangerous group here. But I need that contact data."_

 _"_ _If you want me to help you I will only do so anonymously"_ The last hing Thomas needed was a file with his details in the hands of the police.

Nick who had listened into the entire conversation so far signaled Judy to pause the call for a second.

 _"_ _One moment Sir"_ Judy said and paused the call, turning to Nick.

 _"_ _Judy this is maybe our only chance of solving this case. If he doesn't want to tell us who he is then let it slip. I think we can ignore police regulations just once with a case this important."_

 _"_ _I wont just ignore the rules Nick. I could lose my Job!"_

 _"_ _I understand, but I will"_ Nick said and took the phone out of Judys paw, continuing the call.

 _"_ _Hello this is Officer Nicholas Wilde. Please tell us everything you know. We can take your contact details later."_

 _"_ _I have only seen the 'Praedator' sign once in my life on a trip to the Tri-Burrow area. It was on a truck that was driving eastwards out of Bunny Burrow on a small farmer's road"_

Judys ears shot up at the mention of her hometown. She immediately knew what road the mysterious caller was talking about, as there was only one small road out of Bunny Burrow that was going east. She signaled to Nick that she knew where it was.

 _"_ _Sir I believe my partner knows what road you are talking about as she is from the area. Is there anything more you can tell us, when was this, what did the truck look like, could you see the driver or license plate?"_

 _"_ _It was a month ago on a big white truck. The symbol was on a bumper sticker on its back and I don't remember the license plate. I also couldn't see the driver very well but he looked angry"_

Judy once again took the phone out of Nicks hand.

 _"_ _Sir if you couldn't see the driver very well how can you tell his facial expression?"_

 _"_ _I just …"_

 _"_ _Also we still need that contact data Sir!"_

 _"_ _I already told you I …"_

 _"_ _The Zootopia Security Agency can track your call if you don't comply and find where you called us from and your number that way."_

Hearing this, Thomas hung up his phone immediately and took out the battery. Luckily he haden't called from his home as he he had guessed they might be able to track his location. He threw the phone into a nearby river hoping it would never be found.

 _"_ _Why did you do that Judy?"_ Nick half whined.

 _"_ _To save your butt you ungrateful fox. You have just broken so many regulations you would have lost your job over this if I just let you continue."_

 _"_ _Yeah but he might have had more information for us. And you know we are not allowed to track a mammals phone if we aern't sure they have done something against the law! I bet he wont call us back either!"_

 _"_ _Well we have gotten plenty of information already. I know the road he talked about. It leads to an old abandoned farm a few kilometers outside of Bunny Burrow. There is only one farm there so if he really saw that truck it must have gone towards that farm. We have a new lead Nick, and you might get out of all of this without going to jail, so cheer up!"_

To her surprise however, Nick didn't cheer up in the slightest. The mention of him going to jail seemed to crush his mood even though Judy had just said he wouldn't go there. Puzzled by this shift in his mood from angry to sad, Judy asked: _"Whats wrong, Nick?"_

 _"_ _Maybe I deserve to be in Jail you know. Maybe its where I belong."_

 _"_ _Nick, you know that's not true!"_

 _"_ _Judy what I did for Mr Big…"_

 _"_ _It couldn't have been that bad?"_

Nick needed to change topics. Now.

 _"_ _I think we have a trip to Bunny Burrow to plan. I am going to meet your parents, aren't I?"_

 _"_ _Well yeah I think we should ask Bogo for permission right away. Since its Friday we could spend the weekend on my farm afterwards, I am sure my parents wont mind you staying there."_

Judy was of course even more curious just what it was Nick had done that he was now hinting at. But knowing how he would react to her pressuring him to talk about his past she decided to wait for him to tell her when he was ready to share whatever dark secret lay in these three years.

They both went to Bogos office.

 _"_ _Sir we just got a hint about the Gazelle case. Someone has seen the symbol_ " Nick began.

 _"_ _Great news, officers, when and where was it seen?"_

 _"_ _About a month ago in Bunny Burrow Sir. We request your permission to go there right away and investigate the hint."_

 _"_ _Is the source credible Officer Wilde?"_

Nick put up the best fake sorry face he could and began telling the lie that would hopefully save his job

 _"_ _Well you see Sir, since I only just graduated from the academy and have little experience with witness calls I misremembered a part of the regulations on such calls. You see I thought I was supposed to only ask for the contact details after taking in the witnesses statement, and when I asked the caller for his details he simply hung up. Its really all my fault Sir, but from all the caller told me I have no reason to mistrust him."_

 _"_ _Have you at least noted the callers name and number Wilde?"_

 _"_ _He called from a suppressed number and only said he was a concerned citizen Sir."_

Nick was visibly shrinking in his seat from the Buffalos gaze.

" _Wilde!_ " Bogo began screaming, _"regulations exist for a reason! The academy training exists for a reason! You got an unknown call and tell me it is trustworthy? One more such 'mistake' and you are fired, officer Wilde, have I made myself clear?"_

 _"_ _Absolutely, Sir!"_

After Bogos lecture was over, Judy finally dared to talk again.

 _"_ _Sir, while I understand your concerns with Officer Wildes mishandeling of calling regualtions, I would still request your permission for me and my partner to travel to Bunny Burrow immediately and investigate the hint we got there. It might be our only chance at solving this case. The ZPD wont even have to pay for our visit as my partner and I can stay at my parents place."_

 _"_ _I don't like these circumstances, Officer Hopps. But you are correct, it might be our only chance. Just be aware that your 'concerned citizen' might aswell be a member of the Cow Clan trying to lure you into a trap. So be extra careful. Dismissed!"_

With that the two smallest Officers left their bosses office and started heading home to prepare for their trip to Bunny Burrow.


	11. War!

**Chapter 11 – War!**

After calling her parents and confirming that it was okay for Judy to come home for the weekend and bring a _surprise visitor_ with her, as she didn't know how her parents would react if she told them she would bring a fox into their home, both Judy and Nick went home to pack what they needed for the weekend. An hour later they met again on the trainstation to catch the train to Bunny Burrow. Upon entering it, Nick just wanted to sit down on the first free pair of seats they found, but Judy insisted they needed to go to a different part of the train. She brought Nick up to the sky deck, where she had also spent her first ride to Zootopia.

 _"Have I ever told you about the first time I came to Zootopia Nick?"_

 _"I cant remember anything of the sort carrots"_

 _"I was in the exact location we are in right now. I listened to Gazelle's 'try everything' on my iCarrot during my first trip to Zootopia. Gazelle made me believe a bunny from the Burrows could be a cop in the big city. And now I go back from the big city to the Burrows because of Gazelle again, although under far less happy circumstances"_

 _"We will find them Judy. We will find the Cow Clan and destroy them. And when every last one of these terrorists is behind bars, you will once again be able to listen to 'try everything' with a smile on your face because you'll know you paid Gazelle back for what her music did for you."_

Trying to lighten the mood, Nick shifted the conversation to a happier topic and soon both officers were once again laughing.

Arriving in Bunny Burrow, they went to the Sheriffs station and lended a car to go investigate the abandoned farm. It was only a couple of kilometers but because of the bad state of the mud roads it still took them quite some time to get to their destination.

They parked a few hundred meters away from the farm and approached it with their tazer guns drawn. The farm was in the middle of a forest so they used the trees and bushes on the side of the road as cover.

About 100 meters away from the farm, Nicks powerful nose picked up an all too familiar scent. The scent of Nighthowler's plants. After the first Nighthowlers case it had been outlawed to grow any more of them, so something was definitely wrong here.

Coming closer to the farm, they went into something that looked like a cornfield on the outside, but after only a few rows of corn, thousands of Nighthowlers plants were revealed.

Careful not to get in contact with the plants, they went back through the corn and towards the farm again. They had found the laboratory where the Nighthowler's serum was produced in the first Nighthowler's case, but never the place where all the plants were grown to produce the serum. This just seemed like a very likely place.

They approached the house as carefully as possible. All curtains were drawn behind the windows of the large wooden building. While Judy gave him cover, Nick approached the front door of the house and knocked.

 _"This is the ZPD! Open the door immediately or we are forced to storm the building!"_ he shouted.

There was no response.

After waiting for about 30 seconds, Nick tried opening the door. It was locked of course.

 _*So well have to do this the hard way then*_ he thought to himself.

Nick gave Judy a signal he was going to breach the old brittle wooden door and prepared to kick it open with Judy right behind him.

On a count of three he kicked the door with all the force he could muster. They heard something fall down but the door didn't open. Nick kicked again. The doors lock was half ripped out but still held. On the third kick the door crashed open.

Upon getting a first glance of the interior, Nick immediately knew he had made a terrible mistake. The object that had fallen down with his first kick was an old burning oil lamp, and with the oil spilling all over the wooden floor the fire was now quickly spreading.

" _Judy call the fire department now!"_ Nick shouted, but she had already started dialing the number in a rush.

Without any proper equipment there was little Nick and Judy could do in the minutes leading up to the arrival of the firefighters. When the firetruck finally arrived, the old wooden house was completely up in flames already.

It took several hours to get the fire under control, and when it was finally extinguished, there was nothing left of the farm house. At least the firefighters managed to prevent the fire from spreading to the nearby forest.

It had become evening and both officers were completely exhausted both mentally and physically from the events of the day. After driving back to the sheriffs department to tell them about the Nighthowlers and give a report of how the fire had started, Judy called her parents to pick them up at the Sheriffs office.

Several minutes later, the familiar old Hopps' family car showed up in front of them. Bonny got out and hugged Judy

 _"I am so glad to see you Judy! And you must be the mystery visitor. Mr…?"_

 _"Wilde. Nicholas Wilde. Call me Nick"._

 _"Hello Nick."_ She extended a paw towards him, breaking the hug _"I am Bonny, Judys mum. It is such a pleasure to meet you. Judy has told us all about you and how you helped her solve her first case. From what she has told me it sounds like you two make great colleagues. Oh you must be hungry! Please, get into the car. Dinner is already getting cold."_

On their drive towards Judys childhood home Bonny asked: " _Judy why didn't you tell us Nick was the surprise visitor? Stu was guessing you would introduce us to your boyfriend today, he couldn't wait to meet that rabbit."_

 _"Mom! I don't have a boyfriend. And we are here on official ZPD business today, not just for pleasure you know. Oh and I didn't tell you I was bringing Nick because I was nervous how you two would react to a fox staying in your house."_

 _"Oh Judy. You know we're not like that anymore. We are working with Gideon now and Stu and I have no problem with foxes anymore. Although lately…, well he'll tell you yourself"_

 _"Who will tell me what?"_ Judy asked

But Bonny remained silent.

A few minutes later they arrived at the Hopps farm.

* * *

In a safe location somewhere within Zootopia, a certain goat was furious.

 _"It will take months to get our operation running again after what you just did to me!"_

 _"Boss I swear to you I have no idea what you are talking about. Please just let us go!"_ Thomas pleaded.

 _"Stop lying, after you quit your job I monitored your phone calls. I know you spoke to some officer Hopps and officer Wilde, Thomas! I know you told them about my farm! I warned you never to betray me, and you ignored that warning!"_

Thomas was now utterly crushed inside. If his former boss had heard it all, the chances of his family and himself getting out of this mess alive were slim.

 _"Please boss, I'll do anything for you. Please, just let my family go!"_

 _"Family. Funny that you mention it Thomas. Do you know what happened to my family?"_

The goat was looking at a picture that showed himself next to a female goat and three baby goats. It was the only item he had taken with him while rushing out of the basement of his farm after he had learned that police now knew where he lived due to Thomases betrayal.

Since Thomas dared not respond, the goat continued:

 _"I lost my entire family Thomas. They were abducted. I later learned that they had slaughtered my wife immediately. With my three kids however, they werent so generous. They first forced them to eat for weeks so they would fatten up in an underground prison Thomas. They fattened my children and when they were fat enough they killed them. And chopped their little bodies up into pieces. And do you know why Thomas? Do you know why they did it?"_

The goat was now shouting at the top of his lungs. He directed his look at the deer in front of him and asked again.

 _"Do you know why they did it?"_

It was a question that could not be left unanswered. So the deer finally whispered:

 _"I don't know boss. I don't know why they did it. Just please…"_

He was interrupted by the goat. However the goat now wasn't shouting anymore. The goat got close to the stag's ear and whispered with a tortured voice:

 _"They murdered my wife and my children so they could sell the flesh of their dead bodies to some hungry predators. Because predators haven't changed since we founded this city Thomas. Predators are submammalian savages that value their own tastebuds over the life of us prey animals. That is why I fight them Thomas. I fight predators because they ate my family. I want to exterminate predators because they ate my family. And to do that I need Nighthowlers serum. Which I grew at my farm. The farm you just told the fucking cops about!"_

Thomas was shocked by this revelation. For the first time in his life he could understand the goats motivation. But all that wasn't a priority right now. Right now he needed to save his family. Somewhere inside he already knew it would be futile, but still he had to continue his pleading.

 _"Boss I swear I didn't know what happened to your family. I will do whatever you ask of me. I will eternally be your servant if you just let my family go!"_

 _"You are right Thomas, you will do what I ask of you. You will help me start the war against predator scum. But first you need to understand what it feels like to lose your family Thomas. You need to know what drives me before you can join me."_

The goat looked away from the deer towards some of his henchmen.

 _"Bring me this traitors wife!"_

Two henchman dragged the struggeling deer in front of the goat, Thomas continued his pleading and exchanged desperate looks with his wife. But it was all to no avail. The goat took out his gun and pointed it at the female deers head.

 _"Remember this feeling Thomas. I have always found rage is the best motivation for exceptional performances. And you will perform exceptionally."_

After this statement, the goat pulled the trigger.

Thomas cried out in pain as the love of his live collapsed in front of him. His fear and pain turned into rage and if they hadn't also abducted his daughter, he would have tried to kill the goat right now.

 _"I am a civilized mammal Thomas_." The goat explained after putting his gun away. _"I will not eat your wife. I will not fatten your daughter. But I will get the revenge I crave, and if you help me to fulfill my destiny, you might get your daughter out of this alive. That is more than Pred scum left me with. Have you understood that?"_

 _"Yes boss"_

 _"Will you betray me ever again?"_

 _"No boss"_

 _"Good. Because if you do, I don't even want to imagine the things that will happen to your daughter. Right now I need a certain two police officers you spoke to to stop trying to find me. And I know just the way to convince them that finding me is a bad idea. I give you your first task Thomas, what you need to do for me is…."_


	12. A matter of trust

**Chapter 12 – A matter of trust**

Stu Hopps had a hard time hiding his disappointment when he saw his Daughter approach his house with a fox besides her. He had really hoped Judy would finally bring home a nice rabbit buck and introduce him as her boyfriend. A few months back there would have been no way he'd have allowed a _fox_ of all mammals to enter his home, but Judy had managed to change his attitude towards them, to a point where he was now even working with Gideon Grey as a partner.

Still though, Stu didn't trust foxes. Gideon might have grown up to be a decent trustworthy mammal, but Stu wouldn't forget what Gideon had done to Judy when she was younger. And now Sophie, one of his younger daughters, was mobbed in school by some fox again.

But right now he had to hide any distaste for foxes which wasn't too hard for him as the joy over finally seeing his daughter again was stronger than any other emotion he was currently feeling. And if Judy trusted this fox, he would do so too, _to an extent._

" _Daaaad_ " Judy called out when she saw her father. She stormed towards him and embraced him in a hug.

 _"_ _Jude the dude finally returns home I cannot believe it. The city hasn't swallowed you yet?"_

 _"_ _Nope. Still going strong. Stronger than ever infact. Oh, dad this is my partner in the ZPD I told you all about, Nicholas Wilde!"_ Judy pointed towards the fox.

Nick had trouble appearing friendly when he noticed a certain item in the pocket of Stus pants. Stu had clearly given his best to hide it, putting the shirt over it, but for an experienced street hustler like Nick it was easy to tell that a tazer was in Stus pocket.

Still he approached the hare with as friendly a smile as he could muster and introduced himself to Judys dad. They were all invited in and Nick was curious to see how Judys enormous family could possibly all live together in this house that seemed tiny from the outside. His question was quickly answered when they all walked down several floors on a stairway into a huge underground complex with hundreds of rooms. 4 floors deep underground, a door opened into what Nick could only describe as a _hall_ that contained 6 tables, each of which was at least 20 meters long, with hundreds of chairs all around them. Only a few rabbits remained in the large room because most kids already had to go to bed before.

Bonny directed Judy and Nick to sit down on one of the tables and disappeared in the kitchen for a moment, returning with two plates filled with blueberry pie. Nicks mouth watered when the delicious smell hit his sensitive nostrils, and the first bite confirmed that this pie tasted heavenly.

 _"_ _This is the best pie I ever had Bonny. Thank you so much for letting me stay here and for this amazing meal. You must tell me the recipe!"_

 _"_ _That is very kind of you to say Nick. The recipy has run among the Hopps matriarchs for generations and we never shared it with any outsiders, so I am afraid I have to keep it a secret. But feel free to come here anytime, a friend of Judy is always welcome in my house."_

Stu gave his wife a disapproving look over the offer she had just made but remained silent.

 _"_ _So what brings you two to Bunny Burrow? I assume you didn't just come here to visit your family, seeing as you still wear your uniform Judy? Something Job related?"_

 _"_ _Yes mum, we are investigating a case and got a hint that the mammal we are searching for might live in Bunny Burrow, so we checked out the location today but didn't find anything. I cant really share any details about the ongoing investigation though sorry. And also we both have the next two days off, so I thought I would introduce my partner to my hometown."_

 _"_ _Oh your searching for someone here? We heard there was a fire today in the old abandoned farm on the eastern road. That doesn't happen to have anything to do with your case does it?"_

 _"_ _Ummm. I'm not sure I am allowed to answer that question mum."_

 _"_ _Wait so it was the location you checked out? Oh my god Judy! Are you hurt? Did you get burned? Was some criminal there? Why did the ZPD not send you with some backup if it sends you to such a dangerous place?"_

 _"_ _Mom I am fine and I really cant talk about the case any more than I already have. Sorry."_

Bonny didn't look like she believed her daughter was fine, but she let it slip for now. It was Stu who continued the conversation:

 _"_ _Judy you know if you ever wanted to stop having such a dangerous Job you could always just settle down in Bunny Burrow with some nice Buck ans start your own little farm."_

 _"_ _Dad!"_

 _"_ _Im serious Judy. Country live fits us bunnies. And have I told you about…"_

 _"_ _Oh Stu stop it! Cant you see how embarrased she is about us in front of her colleague?"_

Judy was very thankful for her mother interrupting her dad before he could say anything more. She looked over to Nick and could see a smirk on his muzzle. He was clearly enjoying the show.

Stu looked slightly embarrased about what he had just said, and tried to switch topics.

 _"_ _So Nick, would you mind telling us a it about yourself? Judy has told us a lot about you and if we are to believe her you are the best mammal she has ever met."_

 _"_ _Carrots is clearly putting me in a better light than I deserve Stu. I am merely her partner in the ZPD."_

 _"_ _Have you been on the force for long?"_

 _"_ _No infact I just joined the ZPD about a month ago. Your daughter is the one that convinced me to go through the Academy and become an officer."_

 _"_ _Oh and what was your career before you joined the ZPD?"_

Nick was a bit taken aback by the question. He didn't want to lie to Judy's parents, but in this situation he couldn't exactly tell the truth either. He sent his partner a pleading look for just long enough for her to notice. Judy understood immediately and took over.

 _"_ _When I met Nick he had a Job in sales."_

 _"_ _Really? What were you selling?"_

 _"_ _Ice cream."_

 _"_ _You produced your own icecream?"_

 _"_ _I was more reselling it."_

 _"_ _You were reselling icecream your whole life and that gave you the experience to help Judy solve her first case?"_

 _"_ _I had other jobs before that."_

 _"_ _Jobs like?"_

 _"_ _Dad could you stop interrogating Nick?"_ Judy finally interrupted, sensing that this conversation wasn't going in a good direction.

 _"_ _I just want to be sure that my daughter has a trustworthy partner in such a dangerous job. Let an old man be worried for his daughter."_

 _"_ _I doubt you would ask the same questions if Nick were a rabbit dad."_

 _"_ _You were assaulted by a fox before Judy. I just want to be sure it wont happen again."_

Judy was close to tearing up over how horrible her father was treating Nick.

 _"_ _Dad stop it right now! I thought you worked with Gideon now? And Nick is the most trustworthy mammal I have ever met. He got me out of trouble more times than I can count on the Nighthowlers case. And now you treat him like he is some sort of danger to society!? I thought you were over this backwards kind of thinking dad!"_

 _"_ _Your Sister Sophie came home crying and with a blue eye yesterday Judy. And it was her classmate Oliver Claws who mobbed her like that. He is a fox too you know. I don't doubt that some foxes are good mammals, and I don't doubt that even foxes can learn some manners when they grow up, like Gideon did. But two of my daughters have been attacked by foxes before so I just want to make sure Nick isnt that kind of fox."_

Judy couldn't take it for another second. She grabbed Nicks hand, sprung up, shouted an unfriendly _"goodnight dad"_ and stormed out of the room. She led Nick to a guest room where he would stay for the next two days.

 _"_ _I am so sorry my father is like that Nick. You don't deserve to be treated like this!."_

 _"_ _Its ok fluff, he's far from the only mammal that dislikes us foxes and I can understand he is angry about your sister being attacked in school."_

 _"_ _I wish he would see that not all foxes are the vicious predators he imagines you are."_

 _"_ _Maybe we should show him that foxes can be good mammals too. I think we should set a positive example. Didn't you say your friend Gideon Grey still lived here? Maybe the two of us and Gideon could meet this Oliver tomorrow and talk to him about your sister. If we convince him to never do something like this again that might change your dads mind."_

 _"_ _That's a wonderful idea actually!"_

And with that the two said their goodnights and Judy left for her own room.


	13. Good fox

**Chapter 13 – Good fox**

Judy and Nick aswell as Gideon Grey sat in the Hopps family car on their way to meet Oliver Claws. Luckily Stu had managed to not bring up any unconfortable topics on the breakfast table again, after Judys reaction the night before. Nick was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of rabbits that all ate together that morning, having never had siblings himself. Luckily most of Judys siblings kept their distance to the fox, so he could still have breakfast mostly uninterrupted. A few of Judys older siblings had still joined them and asked them about their Jobs in the ZPD, but the intrest was mostly for Judy.

A few minutes later they arrived at the Claws' house. Judy rang the bell and a middle aged tod opened the door.

 _"_ _Hello mister Claws. I am Judy Hopps, the older sister of Sophie Hopps, a classmate of your son. If you don't mind, me and my two friends here would like to talk to your son about his behavior in class. We heard he had a quarrel with my sister."_

" _Miss Hopps, pleasure to meet you. I am sorry for what my son did to your sister, you sure can have a talk with him. We tried to tell him that such behavior was unacceptable but he hardly listens to us, maybe you can help him overcome his anger issues. Come in please."_

A minute later Judy, Nick, Gideon, Oliver and Olivers parents were all seated in the Claws' living room.

 _"_ _Hello Oliver I am Judy, Sophies sister. I heard the two of you don't get along very well?"_

 _"_ _I asked her to give me her lunch and she didn't listen to me. But she should do what I say cause I am a fox and shes just a little bunny!"_

Gideon saw it was his turn to speak to the little fox that was so much like he himself had been years before.

 _"_ _Slow down there pal. I also once thought that the world belonged to us foxes. I was just like you once, I wanted to prove to the world that I was the strongest. Thought that no bunny could tell me what to do. I even attacked Judy here once when I was about your age. But guess what? – Foxes and bunnies aren't all that different after all. Today I even work with Judys parents and Judy and I are good friends now. Just because she is a bunny and I am fox doesn't mean that I am any better than her. Infact today I am ashamed for what I once did, it really isn't nice to attack someone you know. And don't you think that bunnies are weak mammals, my friend Judy here is even in the ZPD today and catches bad guys ten times her size"_

 _"_ _Hey I also wanna be a police officer one day! Its so cool when you can just taze and handcuff anyone you don't like! I didn't think bunnies could be policemammals?"_

This time it was Nick answering. _"Let me tell you that bunnies make the best police officers Oliver. I also work in the ZPD and Judy is my partner, and I have never seen an officer that catches the bad guys quite like she does. But you cant just decide whom to 'taze and handcuff' like you put it. Infact as a police officer your first and foremost duty is to help and protect all mammals. I hear the ZPD is even looking for more fox officers, but only those foxes which are nice to the mammals around them can apply."_

 _"_ _So I have to be nice to bunnies to join the police?"_

 _"_ _You have to be nice to all mammals Oliver. Fighting with others because you think they are weaker than yourself is not something a good policemammal would ever do. Infact if a good policemammal had done what you did they would offer a sincere apology to a certain bunny and never behave like you did again. But if you sincerely apologize and ask Sophie to forgive you, you could one day have your very own police badge like this one."_ Nick took out his badge and handed it to Oliver.

 _"_ _Officer Claws sonds like a good name to me"_ Oliver shouted out in excitement over the item he was just handed.

 _"_ _It's a perfect name for a police officer really. And who knows, maybe one day officer Sophie Hopps will be officer Claws' partner?"_

 _"_ _You really think that could happen?"_

 _"_ _I really do buddy. But only if you apologize and are nice to Sophy from now on."_

 _"_ _I will!"_

 _"_ _Youll make a great officer Oliver!"_

 _*And you would make a great dad Nick*_ Judy thought. _*Wait, wher the hell did that come from? Brain what are you doing?*_

* * *

They had dropped Gideon off on their way back to the Hopps farm.

 _"_ _Thank you Nick. I think you really helped him, my sister and my dad today. Has anyone ever told you you are good with children?"_

 _"_ _Cant recall anyone ever saying that carrots."_

 _"_ _Well I assume that's because you never worked with children before have you?. You really are amazing with them."_

Nick suddenly remembered a certain scene from his past as if it had happened yesterday at the mention of 'woking with children'. But he quickly repressed the memory like he had for so many years.

 _"_ _Have you?"_ Judy repeated

" _Nope_ " Nick hadnt even recognized Judy had asked him a question over his mental struggle to lock that memoy back into the part of his head where he had kept it hidden for years. His answer wasn't exactly a lie, but….

 _"_ _Well I think if Oliver really apologizes to Sophy it might shift some gears in my dads stubborn head. I hope he has half the guts Oliver does and apologizes to you when he realizes how wrong he was"_

 _"_ _I doubt that he will Judy"_

 _"_ _Really? How would you know, you only spoke to him for half an hour yesterday."_

 _"_ _I didn't want to tell you when we went to sleep yesterday because you were already so upset. But your dad carries a fox tazer with him"_

 _"_ _He WHAT?"_ Judy was furious over this revelation. _"I will taze his sorry head with that horrible device until it buzzes some sense into his speciecist head!"_

 _"_ _I would prefer if you wouldn't talk to him about it Judy. Maybe our talk with Oliver does change his mind, and if not I doubt that you assaulting him will do either. Besides I am bound by law to stop you from assaulting your dad like that, and the sight of a fox handcuffing his daughter infront of him would maybe not be so helpful aswell."_

Judy couldn't help but smile a little bit below her anger at the image of Nick arresting her in front of her dad.

 _"_ _Alright slick but I don't think I can stand spending the afternoon at home with dad. Mind if we change plans and visit the Hopps blueberry fields instead?"_

 _"_ _Are you kidding me carrots? Standing in a filed of blueberries is like a dream come true for me"_

 _"_ _Well maybe you should ask my father for my hand so we can finally settle down and have our own blueberry farm like he always wanted slick. I am sure he will be absolutely thrilled at the idea!"_

Nick knew she didn't mean one word of it, but to him the idea didn't seem all that bad. He had a fake chuckle as if he found the idea ridiculous aswell but inwards grew a bit sad that this idea was only a joke to Judy.

* * *

They were finally returning to Judy's home to have dinner. Although Nick couldn't imagine eating one more bite after having spent the afternoon in a blueberry field. He wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of meeting Judys dad again, but it could not be avoided.

He was all the more surprised when Stu pulled him aside upon entering the dining hall. He half expected the rabbit to tell him to leave his house, but what he heard as the complete opposite of that.

 _"_ _Nicholas, I wanted to talk to you. Oliver was here today with his parents and told Sophie he was sorry for what he did. Said that he wouldn't ever do it again and that a 'good police fox' had convinced him that he had to be friendly to all mammals from now on so he could be an officer too. Thank you Nick. Thanks for what you did for my daughter. Daughters, that is, as you helped Judy aswell. And sorry for the way I acted yesterday, I was a horrible host. Can you forgive this old fool?"_

 _"_ _There is nothing to be forgiven Stu, I understand you are a father worried for his daughters safety, and there is nothing wrong with that. Thanks for letting me stay at your house, I hope I can prove to you that some of us foxes are truly decent mammals."_

 _"_ _I know that already. Gideon is a great partner, I just let my old prejudice take the best of me once again when I saw Sophie hurt like that. I really hope you can forget the way I acted yesterday and get to know the real Stu Hopps, who treats his guests like a proper rabbit."_

 _"_ _Its all water under the bridges."_

* * *

With all the bad feelings of the previous evening gone, this dinner was a far more enjoyable experience for Nick. He hadn't thought it possible, but more food had even managed to find its way into his stomach after he had learned Bonny had made Blueberry pancakes.

Judys brothers and sisters also seemed far less reluctant to talk with him after the news of the reason for Olivers apology had made its way through the Hopps house. Nick finally got to know some of her siblings, when the evening got later they even played a round of poker together. It didn't surprise Judy much that Nick would have been rich that night if they had played for real money.

When it was finally becoming time to go to bed again, everybody helped together to clean the tables and prepare everything for the next day. It was a whole new experience for Nick to see a family where all memebers worked together and supported one another. Judy carried out the leftovers to the trashcan as her final chore of the day. Upon opening the trashcan she saw a certain item in there that made her very happy. It was her fathers fox tazer.


	14. Safe location

**Chapter 14 – A Safe location**

Nick couldn't believe it. Why was his phone ringing? It had to be the middle of the night. He would tell whatever crazy mammal dared to wake him from his slumber at this time to go to hell. Before even checking who the caller was, he looked at the clock on his phone. 3:21 AM. Next his eyes shifted to the blinking symbol indicating the caller.

To his surprise he was getting a call from the Precinct. Reluctantly, Nick answered his phone.

 _"_ _Why the Hell do you wake me at 3am on my day off?"_

 _"_ _Is this Officer Nicholas Wilde?"_

 _"_ _Yes. Now if this is some kind of joke let me tell you…"_

 _"_ _Officer Wilde I need you to sit down."_

 _"_ _The Hell?"_

Worried about what kind of news could possibly make it necessary for him to sit down at 3 am Nick followed the order.

 _"_ _Ok I sit now. What happened?"_

 _"_ _Officer Wilde, your mother Vivian Wilde has been kidnapped."_

Nicks heart stopped beating. His longues stopped pushing air in and out. His eyes were open but he couldn't see. If he wasn't sitting he would have collapsed as his limbs no longer got the order to keep him standing from the brain. The words he just heard occupied every bit of his mind so thoroughly that nothing else found place in it anymore. The officer on the line continued talking but Nick didn't understand a single word that was said.

Eventually his completely shut down body got nagged by some voice trying to tell him something. His mind was in such a state of panic that it took him almost a minute to finally understand the words that were spoken.

 _"_ _Officer Wilde, did you understand what I just told you?"_

 _"_ _My mother was kidnapped?"_

 _"_ _Yes, we…"_

Hearing confirmation that he hadn't just imagined these words being spoken set him into a second state of panick that didn't allow for any other stimulus to occupy his mind. But then it dawned on him that if these unimaginable news were in fact true, it was of the utmost importance to hear anything that officer was trying to tell him.

 _"_ _When? Where? Was a ransom note left? Are you investigating this yet? Have you got a trace of the kidnapper? Do you know if she is safe?"_

Nick shouted these questions into the phone with all the force his voice could muster. The fact that he was in a house with over 300 sleeping rabbits wasn't even remotely aware to him right now.

 _"_ _Officer Wilde I need you to calm down. It happened about an hour ago, in her house. We are investigating it of course but we have no trace of her or the kidnapper yet. A note was left. It says that if the investigation into the Gazelle case continues she will be killed. It is signed with the Praedator P. Officer Wilde I need you to come to the station right now to tell us everything you know that might help us find her. But please try to remain as calm as possible. Please ask a friend or relative to drive you as in your state of mind you should not drive yourself. Can you come to the Precinct?"_

 _"_ _Im in Bunny Burrow right now. I think I can lend a car. I'll be at the station as fast as I can. Keep me updated if you hear anything new."_

Nick ended the call and stormed out of his room towards Judy's. He shouted her name as loud as he could. Many of her siblings had already gathered in the corridor to see what the shouting was all about. Finally he found her stepping out of her room sleepdrunken and before she could say anything to him he again shouted:

 _"_ _We need to go to Zootopia right now! The Cow Clan kidnapped my mom!"_

Her parents were also there and heard him, so Stu quickly ran for the keys and gave them to Judy, both officers got into the car and Judy started driving to to Zootopia at a speed that could have cost her her license.

* * *

It was almost dawn when they arrived at the station. Nick was thoroughly questioned on just about anything that could help the police find his mother. Bogo was already there and gave the note left in Vivians house to Nick and Judy.

It read:

 _"_ _To the Predator scum son of the vulpine bitch I have in my power._

 _Stop trying to find me. Stop trying to destroy my work. Stop investigating Gazelle._

 _If you or any other traitors in uniform ignore these orders the red furred pred scum will die, if I feel kind. If this goes public the red furred pred scum will die, if I feel kind._

 _I will rip every reeking hair out of her unwashed skin. Each of her murderous pred claws will be pulled out of her fingers one after the other. I will burn her disgusting eyes out with a hot spoon. I will char her wrinkled skin until she is a lump of coal. I will cut her tail off with a rusty butter knife. I will break every bone in her deformed body. I will squeeze her limbs off with a meat grinder. I will pull her intestines out of her fat pred belly. And then I will shoot her, if I feel kind._

 _For now she is in a safe location. She might stay here, if I feel kind._

 _The work continues."_

The letter was signed with the same capital 'P' with fangs they had already found on the dead sheep. It left no question as to who had abducted her. She was in the hands of the terrorist hate group that wanted to enslave or exterminate all predators.

A feeling of desperation overcame Nick. Once again his mind was occupied by this single feeling to an extent where no other stimulus could reach him.

Bogo noticed and understood that the fox was in no state to comprehend anything else he said, so he instead turned to Judy.

 _"_ _We are doing everything we can to find her. Due to the severe nature of these threats we handle the case with the utmost caution. All officers involved are experts at handling delicate situations like this one. Forensics is turning Mrs. Wildes house upside down in search of even the smallest detail. I cannot have you two working on the Gazelle case anymore. We will freeze all investiagtions on the Gazelle murder until Vivian Wilde is rescued. Officer, Hopps, you and Wilde are on paid leave until further notice. I do not want you too to be seen in a police uniform in public so we don't endanger Mrs. Wildes safety. Since you were also personally involved in the Gazelle case, I have sent officers to stand guard at your parent's house to prevent a similar incident with your family. Please tell Officer Wilde all this information as soon as he is once again able to comprehend words. Here is the number of psychiatrist specialized on victims of traumatic events. Take Wilde there."_

Judy took the number from Bogo and thanked him, she herself was in utter shock of course, but still sane as it wasn't her mother that was kidnapped. Right now all she could do was try to comfort Nick, who had broken down into a fetal position on the ground and was crying uncontrollably.

* * *

Judy had driven herself and Nick to his place after picking up some clothes from her home, as her place was probably too small for both of them to stay at for the next couple of days. Nick hadn't said a single word since reading the letter. He stared into the empty, occasionally starting to cry uncontrollably again. Several hours passed with the two of them just sitting on Nicks couch and Judy doing her best to comfort him. It was 2 PM when Judy finally decided they needed to eat something. She walked into Ncks kitchen and just put a prepackaged meal into the microwave as she didn't want to let him sit there alone for too long. She had decided that visiting the psychiatrist would only make sense as soon as Nick could talk again.

When she took the food out of the microwave she heard his voice again.

 _"_ _I need to find her"_

 _"_ _Nick we endanger her life if we try to find her"_

 _"_ _Everything the police does from now on endangers her life."_

 _"_ _Nick we are both on leave. We cant even use the ZPD's resources. Bogo promised the best experts he has handle the case."_

 _"_ _I. need. To. Find. Her."_

 _"_ _Nick there is no way for us to do that without acces to the ZPDs network"_

 _"_ _We solved your first case without that."_

 _"_ _We had the Help of so many mammals back then Nick. None of which could possibly know about the Cow Clan."_

 _"_ _One of them knows something about everyone. Big will know something. I don't care if you help me or not carrots, but I will get my mother out of this."_

 _"_ _Nick, we should go see a psychiatrist, not a Mafia boss."_

 _"_ _You go do that. I will call Big."_

 _"_ _Do you think Big will even help you with this?"_

 _"_ _If not I will blackmail him. Threaten to destroy his crime empire. Do whatever is necessary."_

Nick took out his phone and called Big. Judy tried to take it from him but he took her paw with a powerful grip of his free hand before she could take it and looked her in the eyes.

 _"_ _You can leave now if you want Judy. But I will find her."_

Then Nick talked to the notorious crime boss.

Judy sat down next to him, defeated. She had no clue what to do in this situation. Nicks reaction was perfectly understandable, and still he would endanger all their lives if he pulled through with this. But she had no means to stop him. So she made her decision. Rather than let him face the danger alone, she would help him do whatever was necessary to find his mother.

Nick finished his call with Mr. Big and looked at Judy.

 _"_ _I can do this alone, and I will do this Judy. If you want to, go home to your family. I wont judge you. But I will meet Big in 15 minutes and he will help me find my mother. So wheter you help me or not, you certainly wont stop me."_

Judy hesitated for a moment before responding. She took a deep breath: _"Nick this might be suicide. But I wont let you do this alone. I will always have your back. We will find her."_


	15. The Godfather

**Chapter 15 – The godfather**

Nick and Judy entered Big's office 15 minutes later as was agreed upon. Nick quickly kissed the tiny shrews hand as was customary.

 _"_ _Ahh it's the newest members of my family finally coming to visit me again. I thought you had forgotten about me. Nick I heard great distress and fear in your voice when you asked to meet me. Who has harmed you in this way? I shall personally see that whoever did thiis to a member of my family will regret their decision."_

 _"_ _Terrible mammals have abducted my mother and threaten to torture and kill her if we don't stop investigating Gazelle's murder. And now our Chief Bogo has put us on leave because of the personal connection we have to this case now. We have no access to the ZPD's resources, but we need to find my mother. I hoped that you could help us with your knowledge."_

 _"_ _I am so terribly sorry to hear what has happened to your kin Nicholas. You and Judy shall have all support I can provide you. Someone dishonoring your mother is also an insult to myself as we are family now. How exactly can I help you?"_

 _"_ _We know that my mother was abducted by a member of a hate group called the 'Cow Clan'. However we have no idea where they keep her and we don't know a single member of this group. We need help finding out anything we can about the cow clan."_

 _"_ _Cow Clan you say? I have heard of them. They hate me for some of my activities. I shall grant your wish and help you find a member of the Clan. And I will help you question this member until we find out where they keep your kin. Do not worry Nicholas, we will get her out of the hands of these terrorists."_

 _"_ _Thank you so much Mr. Big. It is very important that the Clan doesn't know that it is Judy and myself trying to find them, otherwise my mother will be in even greater danger."_

 _"_ _Do not worry Nicholas. My employees will handle this with great care. The Clan will never know you had anything to do with this. I will send my employees on this quest right away. Until they return with success I insist you stay here with us and enjoy our hospitality. I will do my best to comfort you in such unpleasant times."_

 _"_ _Thank you Mr. Big. Whenever there is anything I can do for you to pay you back for the help your giving me, just tell me."_

 _"_ _I might have some similar work like what you did for me previously, but we shall see about that when you are safely reunited with your family again."_

Judy could see Nick being very unconfortable with what Big had just suggested he would do as payback, but Nick did not dare speak up about it now, and Judy knew now was not the time to question him about it either.

Two of Bigs polar bear employees were sent out to meet an old contact, that might know where to find a member of the Cow Clan. Not daring to refuse Bigs offer to stay with him until they returned, the two officers had dinner with the crime boss. It was an expensive meal consisting of many courses prepared by the Mafia bosses private Chef. After the meal Fru Fru joined them and kept them company. The fox and the rabbit did their best to engage in casual conversation with their hosts, but under these circumstances it was hard.

Judy wished they could just leave and talk the whole thing over, as she was enormously uncomfortable with once again accepting the help of the notorious crime boss. She was also worried about the methods his polar bears would use to 'question' any member of the Clan they could find. But she could of course not voice any of her concerns right now.

4 hours after Big had sent his employees out, Judy could see them return and park their car in the car park outside of Bigs house through the window. She was terrified to see them take a large bag out of the trunk of their car. The bag was _moving_.

The polar bears carried the bag to the very same spot herself and Nick had stood at the first time they met Mr. Big. They untied the bag and a frightened rabbit became visible. They forcefully removed the tape they had glued over his mouth and pulled out clumps of hair with it. The rabbits muffled pleading now became loud screaming for help.

Judy looked at Nick and Big and saw that both of them looked determined to squeeze any information out of the rabbit. He was about her age, and could have been her brother. Not that any of her siblings were members of the Clan of course, not that she knew of at least. _*But still*_ Judy thouht, _*this just isn't right*_

She considered excusing herself and calling Bogo in an effort to save the other rabbit in the room. But hearing that she was involved in all this would certainly get herself and Nick fired, likely imprisoned. It would almost guarantee that the Cow Clan would find out about it all and that would kill Nick's mom. It would end Big's career aswell. That last thougth didn't seem too bad to her but the risk was just too great. She had to endure this and hope that things would turn out as nonviolent as they had with Duke Weaselton.

The ice bears had quickly made the rabbit understand that his pleading and screaming would not save him. When he finally fell silent after several violent punches Mr. big began speaking to him.

 _"_ _Your group has abducted the mother of Nicholas here, and he is a member of my family. Tell us where you took them or face the consequences."_

 _"_ _I have no idea what you're talking about!"_

 _"_ _I can see the tattoo under your fur. Where is your organizations headquarters? I will not ask this friendly again."_

He rabbit remained silent.

 _"_ _Alright. You have brought this upon yourself."_

Big signaled his employees to open the trap door to the ice water below them. One of the polar bears took the rabbit by his ears, something that Judy could emphasize would be extremely painful. The rabbit was held over the freezing water and Big repeated his question.

 _"_ _Please Sir, I swear I don't know where the headquarters is or where they took this foxes mother. I have a family Sir, please just let me go!"_

 _"_ _A family you say? Maybe I shall ask my employees to go find them and question them aswell if you don't speak?"_

This merciless threat finally made the rabbit speak. He told them they had taken the vixen to an old warehouse in downtown zootopia. Judy wrote down the adress and by the look on Nicks face she assumed he knew where it was. Judy was hopeful this less than legal interrogation she was witnessing would now finally be over. Big adressed the rabbit again.

 _"_ _You have helped me very much today. As compensation I can assure you that your family will remain unharmed. But I cannot risk you talking to the other Clansmen about what happened here. I need you to be silent."_

When he spoke the word 'silent', the Polar Bear let go of the ears of the rabbit that was still dangling above the ice water.

Judy jumped forward trying to stop the inevitable, but she was too slow and could only hear the splash of the rabbit falling into the water. " _Nooo! Why did you do this we need to get him out of there!"_ she screamed in terror!

She was prepared to jump after the rabbit in an effort to save his life, but Nick quickly grabbed her arm to stop her. The polar bear put the lid back down over the trap door. When it was closed Nick let go of Judy's arm and she ran out of Big's office into the cold.

Nick was running after her shouting an apology towards Mr. Big and thanking him for his help. He barely managed to jump into Judys parents' car before she drove off.

 _"_ _How could you let this happen Nick! We just witnessed a murder and did nothing to stop it! We are police officers for crying out loud! How are we any better than the Clan if we let this happen!"_

 _"_ _Calm down Judy. I understand you don't like what just happened but it was necessary. That rabbit was a terrorist Judy. A member the group that killed Gazelle. If Big had let him go he would have told the Clan what we did and they would kill my mother in revenge. They would kill us in revenge. They would kill your family in revvenge. They would kill Big in revenge. Would you like that to happen?"_

 _"_ _We are murderers now Nick. And I don't think your mother will get out alive if they find that rabbits corpse!"_

 _"_ _Carrots! Calm down! You are not a murderer. There is nothing you could have done to stop this. And it will take quite some time for the Clan finds out he is missing, but still we need to get my mother out of their before they do."_

 _"_ _Nick. We have found out where they keep your mother your way. But we will not free her that same way. I will not accept any more of Bigs 'help'. I wish mammals like Big would not exist at all. We have teamed up with a terrorist to find terrorists. That cannot continue. We will free your mother, this time we will do it the polices way, without anyone else getting hurt in the process. If you insist that we accept any further help from Big, I will call Bogo right now and tell him everything that happened here. I might still do that as soon as your mom is save."_

 _"_ _Alright carrots. But we cant accept help from the police either. Don't you think they will ask how we found the location? And if we do it the polices way we will surround and storm the building. That gives them plenty of time to make their threats a reality. We cant accept anyones help."_

Judy considered Nicks words for a moment. He was right, telling anyone about this would get them into even more trouble. They could not take the risk.

 _"_ _Ok Nick. Its gonna be just the two of us. We got through the first Nighthowler's case together. We will get through this aswell."_

Soon after they arrived back at Nicks apartment.

They decided that it was too late to try and rescue his mother right now, as they were both very tired and had no equipment. Nick knew the warehouse they would have to infiltrate, and he drew up a plan how they would get in. His superb knowledge of Zootopias sewers and back alleys would come in handy in making that plan a reality. Nick also called several contacts from his years as a hustler to sell him the equipment they would need the following day. Both of them then went to bed early so they would be well rested for the upcoming mission.


	16. Everything is gonna be OK

**Chapter 16 - Everything is gonna be okay**

The alarm went off at 4:30 in the morning. 6 hours of sleep would have to do for this dangerous mission. The longer they waited, the higher the risk that the Clan would find out about its rabbit members absence, and who knew if these terrorists would just assume that it had something to do with Nick and Judy. No, to save Vivian they had to act before the Clan had a chance to act on its own.

Since both of them were on leave from the ZPD, they couldn't use any police equipment on their mission. Nicks contacts had sold them the most important items.

Nick had got them two tazer guns for self defense, a smoke granade if they needed to disappear quickly, rope and climbers gear to get down or up any walls, handcuffs for potential bad guys, black clothes with face masks so they would remain hidden in the underground, night vision goggles for Judy since she wouldn't see anything in the sewers otherwise, a flashlight for each of them, a map of the sewers of Zootopia, Walkie talkies to keep in contact during the whole mission, a first aid kit in case any of them got wounded or his mother needed help and a steel cutter in case his mother was chained.

Judy was impressed by his ability to get all of these items overnight, many of them being illegal for civilians to buy. It had cost him a fortune, but thanks to his years of succesfull hustles he could pay for all of it.

They left Nicks flat in normal clothes at precisely 5:30 in the morning, after checking that all their gear worked correctly. They drove Judys parents car to a back alley about half a kilometer from the location of the warehouse. It was safer to start this far from their goal so no Clan members could know they were coming. The two officers changed into the black clothes and face masks, looking much like the criminals they were normally after.

At 5:45 they opened a gutter and began climbing down. The sun would rise around 7:45, so they had two hours to get his mother out before daylight would make their stealth mission a whole lot harder.

They descended down into the stinking gutter. A long tunnel would lead them to a location directly below the warehouse. The map showed that there was a maintenance entrence towards the sewers in the warehouse. The sewer was tall enough for Judy to walk upright, while Nick had to slightly bow his head.

As fast as they could without making too much noise, the two mammals ran towards the warehouse. Judy had put on her night vision goggles while Nick could see just about enough to not run into a wall with his natural night vision. Turning on the flashlights seemed too dangerous as it could give them away easily.

Both had their tazer guns drawn the whole way, but luckily they didn't encounter a single mammal. 5 minutes later the fox and the rabbit stood below what they thought had to be the maintenance entrance. Nick took out the map to confirm that this was the right spot. They climbed up the ladder as silently as possible, and while they had still whispered on the first hallf of their approach, now the basic sign language they had learned at the ZPD was all the communication they used.

Nick opened up the trapdoor that covered the sewer entrance, peeking out as little as possible while checking the room with his tazer drawn. It was only a tiny storeroom, filled with some cleaning supplies.

After he was sure noone was in the room, Nick climbed out and wiated for Judy to join him. Next they opened the door of the room just enough to take a peak beyond.

What they were looking at was the inside of the warehouse, it was a large hall with about 20 by 30 meters. On one side were large garage doors, while the other three walls were solid. Besides the storage room they were peeking out of, there were two more doors on their side of the building.

The warehouse was filled with various large boxes, aswell as several cages of different sizes. Judy gulped at the idea what the Clan could possibly use these cages for. But with her night vision goggles she could see that all cages were empty.

They dared to leave their little room and walk into the main hall as carefully as possible. It had to be the right warehouse, and if the rabbit interrogated by Big hadn't lied Nicks mom had to be here. _*And he wouldn't have dared to lie, fearing for his family*_ Judy thought as a stream of guilt overcame her with the memory. But she quickly swallowed it down, as there was plenty of time for such emotions once they were out of the building.

Since the cages were all empty, that only left the other two doors as potential spots where Vivian could be kept. The two partners approached the closer one of the doors and again opened it up quietly just enough to take a peek inside.

Nick immediately spotted his mother chained to the wall of the room. She was alone in the room and asleep, but from the soft rising and falling of her chest he could tell she was alive. Relief flooded his body. They would get her out of here unharmed. _*Everything is gonna be ok*_ he thought. Nick quickly approached her and tried to wake her up as genly as he could so they would not risk her giving away their location.

While Nick put a paw over his mothers muzzle to supress any screams and his other paw on her shoulder to reassure her while waking her up, Judy entered the room and spotted a tiny video camera above Vivian. Her heart dropped when she noticed the red blinking light indicating that it was on and recording.

Vivian had woken up at this moment, and looked Nick in the eyes. To his surprise she didn't look overjoyed to see him, but instead she just had a frightened look.

Knowing that they were probably watched, Judy dropped all caution and said loud enough for Nick to hear: _"Nick theres a camera in this room. They are watching us. We need to get out now!"_

Nick pulled his paws from Vivian and took a terrified look around him until he saw the tiny blinking item. His joy over seeing his mother unharmed had made him forget to check the room for any such device. Knowing they were in immediate danger now, Nick directed Judy " _Cover the door, I'll cut mom free!"_

Finally fully awake and aware of her surroundings, Vivian screamed: " _Run, Nick! It's a trap!"_

 _"_ _I wont leave you behind mom"_

 _"_ _Run you fool!"_

Nick proceeded to take out the steel cutter and started working on cutting his mother free, while Vivian still begged him to run away and save his pelt. Meanwhile Judy kept her tazer gun pointed at the door ready to shoot anyone coming through it.

After about 15 seconds, Nick had finally managed to cut his mothers left arm free, he repositioned the cutter on the chain locking her right arm in place.

At this moment, Judy noted the tiniest bit of movement outside of the door that was still open just a small gap. Her trigger finger itched for the moment the door would open up any further.

A second later an object flew through the door gap. In her state of maximum tension, Judy pulled the trigger but only hit the door that wasn't opened up any further. For just a blink of an eye she looked at the object and was terrified to see the familiar shape of a grenade. The next nanosecond she could hear the heavy door being shut from the outside and locked. She jumped towards the grenade in an effort to throw it out, but of course there was no gap left to throw it through. Judy was sure this was her last moment on earth.

Looking down at the object she could make out it wasn't going to explode however, since it was a gas grenade. The next second the grenade started spreading its contents through the room. Judy took a terrified look at Nick, who was only seconds from cutting his mother free. Judy warned the two of them and stopped breathing so she wouldn't inhale whatever was in the air now. She ran to the door and tried kicking it open.

Nick had finally cut his mother free, and all three of them were now trying to kick in the door with all their strength.

30 seconds passed. The door did not give way. Judys lungs began burning from the lack of oxygen combined with the physical exhaustion of her fight against the door.

45 seconds.

The pain in her lungs was unbearable. The only thing her mind could still focus on was how much she wanted to breath. Rabbits had a fast metabolism so they couldn't hold their breath for very long, and trying to force the door open had only decreased the oxygen levels in her blood.

1 minute

Judy was losing the fight. They hadn't managed to force the door open yet, and she could no longer hold her breath. Finally she gasped for air. While her longues felt relieved she knew that whatever gas the Cow Clan wanted her to inhale, she had now inhaled. She was suddenly feeling very tired. Extremely tired infact.

Nick heard his partner take deep desperate breaths. He still tried to open that door. A few seconds later he saw Judy drop to the ground and fall into a deep slumber. He himself couldn't hold his breath for much longer. Half a minute later he also had to breathe again, just seconds after his mother. His eyes felt very heavy immediately, and he couldn't force them to stay open for any longer. As he fell into a deep dreamless sleep, the world went black.


	17. So sorry

**Chapter 17 – So sorry**

Nicks eyelids felt heavy. He wasn't a morning mammal of course, and had a hard time opening his eyes almost every morning. But this time it seemed even harder than usual.

He heard some commotion in the background but in his half awake state he couldn't identify what could cause these noises, yet they were anoying him.

He wanted to tell whatever was causing the fuss to shut up, so he could fall back to sleep. He took a deep breath and prepared to scream.

When he tried to open his jaws to shut down the disturbance, it was not possible. His nose crashed against something that stopped him from opening his mouth.

Nick immediately recognized the feeling and knew what kept his mouth shut. Someone had _muzzled_ him for the second time in his life.

At this moment of terror, Nick finally managed to open his eyes and look down at the despised contraption that surrounded his muzzle. Immediately memories of the previous day flooded his mind. He remembered where he was. He remembered why he was here. He knew who had muzzled him.

Nick took a look around and saw that he was in one of the smaller cages in the warehouse. Both his arms were chained to the cage so he was barely able to move. From his position he could see a much larger cage in front of his own. In it was his mother. She seemed to still be asleep, and she wasn't chained or muzzled.

The next thing Nick noticed was the cause of the noise that had woken him up. It was a stag that was talking to someone on the phone in an irritated voice.

Trying to find anything around him that might help him get out of this terrible situation, Nick saw several other mammals in the warehouse. All of them were prey animals as he noted. But he couldn't see Judy anywhere.

One final observation the fox made was that the other prey mammals were setting up something in front of the large cage his mom was sleeping in. It looked like a large tripod.

After his thorough search of the warehouse hadnt revealed any Detail that could help him escape, Nick focused on the conversation the deer was having.

 _"_ _Everything is set up boss. We will begin streaming in about 5 minutes. The vixen and the doe are still asleep, but I'm sure they'll be wide awake once we begin our game. Yes boss. Yes I have made sure of that. He will have a front row seat to enjoy the show."_

The stag turned towards Nick and looked at him now.

 _"_ _Oh I see he has just woken up. We made sure he's comfortable during the whole event. Yeah I've muzzled him like you commanded. Sure I will tell him that. Ok boss. Yeah we will. I know boss. I will"_

With that the stag ended the call and looked Nick into the eyes.

 _"_ _My boss wants you to know he took the time to learn about your past and got you this muzzle as a gift because he knows how much you love those."_

Nick tried to respond, but the tight muzzle made it impossible for him to say anything.

At this moment, an antelope put a large camera on top of the tripod and directed it towards Nicks mothers cage.

Then two large buffalos stepped out of one of the side doors of the hall, they were carrying Judy. Judys arms and legs were bound together with a rope, and she was also muzzled just like Nick. She resisted as much as she could, but her restraints made it easy for the bulls to keep her under control. They approached the larger cage and the stag opened it with a pair of keys. Judy was thrown in and the cage quckly locked behind her again. Judy and Nick could now make eye contact and both sent pleading looks towards each other. Judy then noticed Vivian was in the same cage with her and tried to crawl towards the sleeping vixen.

The camera was switched on now, and the deer walked in front of it and announced:

 _"_ _Many of you good prey animals out there are rightly afraid of what predators do to us. But some think there can be peace between defenseless herbivores and cruel killing machines. Today we would like to prove to you once and for all that Preds are nothing more than savage beasts, waiting for their chance to devour us."_

The deer approached the cage at the end where vivian was sleeping. He stood a bit to the side so he was out of the focus of the camera. Judy had almost made her way over towards Vivian at this point.

What he saw next made Nicks blood freeze. The deer took out an all too familiar object. It was Nighthowler's gun. He directed the gun at Vivian and pressed the trigger. The bullet wasn't blue this time, but colorless. The deer had aimed well so the bullet hit Vivain right at the bottom of one of her feet. She woke up from the impact. Judy could see the fox trying to fight the rage that overcame her, but it was no use. The serum took its effect. Knowing there was no escape Judy still instinctively changed directions and tried to crawl away from the danger in front of her.

Nick could see from the change in his mothers gaze that she was no longer herself. The vixen let out a savage growl and jumped at the bound rabbit infront of her. Nick closed his eyes. He could not stand to look at the scene in front of him. If he could he would have covered his ears with his paws aswell. But he couldn't. He heard fangs tearing into flesh. He heard Judys muffled cries of pain and despair. Then he heard what sounded like a tightly bound rope tearing.

This last sound gave him enough hope to dare open his eyes again. A gruesome sight awaited him. Judys face had been scratched bloody by the savage fox. There was a deep bite wound in her left leg. Both of these injuries looked bad, but not live threatening. A third injury however was much worse. The side of Judy stomach was ripped open. Blood was quickly gathering on the floor below her. In an attempt to cover the wound, Judy had put her bound arms over it, so the savage vixen had bitten through the rope that kept her arms together with her next attack.

Judy could now move her arms freely. With all the force she could muster she hit the savage fox attacking her on the nose when the next attack came. The fox whined in pain but had no intention of letting go of the half dead prey. The vixen shot forward again and this time the rabbit used both her arms to hit the attacker on the head as hard as she could.

Vivian collapsed from the impact, knocked out.

* * *

Thomas switched off the camera at this instant. He had disappointed his boss. The livestream should have convinced the world of the savage nature of predators, not show them that prey could defend itself. They had used the new colorless Nighthowlers serum on her foot so it wouldn't be obvious that she was under the influence of the drug.

Thomas hated having to do all this, but he knew what would happen to his daughter if he stopped. At this moment his phone rang. An angry voice shouted commands in his ear. Thomas had no choice but to obey them.

He opened the cage again and called the two buffalos to help him .

* * *

Judy was still councious. She was losing blood at an alarming rate from her severe wounds. But she didn't think of herself right now. She thought of Nick who was reliving his childhood trauma of being muzzled while watching his dying best friend bleed out from attacks caused by his own mother, who was then violently knocked uncouncious by that same best friend.

Judy was still muzzled and couldn't tell Nick how sorry she was for what she had done to his mother. She tried to issue her apology with looks alone but Nick was focused on the two buffalos dragging his unconcious mother out of the cage right now. She then remembered that she still had a certain object in her pocket.

With her last strength, Judy took out the carrot pen and pressed the play button. Nicks familiar voice apperead saying _"I am so sorry for all of this."_ Judy hoped Nick would understand what she meant. The fox looked at her with pure terror in his eyes when he heard his own voice. Judy thought she saw a forgiving look mixed in with the terror, and at that moment she knew Nick wasn't blaming her.

Judy then used her hands to try and stop the bleeding. She looked back at the two buffalos, who had dropped Vivian in front of the deer that was still talking to someone on the phone. The rabbit was surprised when the deer suddenly looked terrified himself. Something the mammal he was talking to told him must have shocked him.

* * *

Clawhouser got a Call from a very distressed civilian. " _You just watched a livestream of what?"_ He immediately pressed the button to call all officers of Precinct One aswell as the Chief.

* * *

Thomas hated that he had to do this. But his boss had commanded it and he would do literally _anything_ to see his daughters eyes again. So he followed the order he had received on the phone and took out his gun. The one that shot lead, not Nighthowlers. He pointed it at the head of the uncouncious vixen infront of him, looked away and pulled the trigger.

That was not the last order he had to follow however. He quickly instructed the other clan members to prepare everything for a second show. After all they still had a fox and a bunny to prove his bosses point.


	18. The world went red

**Chapter 18 – The world went red**

Delgato and Fangmeyer were rushing through the streets with sirens wailing and the blue light flashing. After they had gotten the dispatch from Clawhouser that Officers Hopps and Wilde were in mortal danger, abiding to traffic laws no longer seemed important. The two of them aswell as any other officer available at the time had gotten clear orders. They were to secure the perimeter, wait until atleast 10 officers in full riot gear had arrived and then storm the warehouse in an effort to save the three mammals within.

The terror group seemingly didn't know that the ZPD could track any electronical device with the help of the Zootopian Security Agency in an emergency situation. It was an unfair backdoor for the government to spy on its citizens and was kept secret from the public, but in moments like these Bogo didn't care for the protection of citizens privacy and would rather get his officers out alive.

While Fangmeyer was driving, Delgato had already started putting his own riot gear on. He informed Precinct One that their ETA was two minutes.

* * *

Judy was trying to stay councious but with the amount of blood she had already lost she knew it was a fight she would soon lose. When the two buffalos once again approached her she tried to offer some resistance, but her body was weakened by the severe wounds and so she stood no chance against the mammals 5 times her size. There was nothing she could do while she was dragged out of the larger cage towards the much smaller cage Nick was kept in. She noted that the camera that had streamed her first fight was redirected to focus on the other cage aswell. There was little room for interpretation as to what would happen to her.

Nicks look was somewhere between concern and terror. Seeing his friend in this state was horrifying. The situation he was in was horrifying. Knowing what was likely going to happen next was horrifying. But there was one thought occupying his mind even more than any of these terrors. He had just witnessed the death of his mother. His loving mother, Vivian Wilde, a mammal he hadn't seen in years and only met again for the first time so recently, and now she was gone. She was a good mammal, she had given her utmost to raise him to become a decent citizen even when it seemed the whole world wanted to look down on a fox. And he had failed her, had become what the world assumed he was destined to become.

She was gone. He hadn't managed to look when the deer pulled the trigger, but the one little glimpse he took of the gruesome scene left no doubt. She was gone.

The very same deer now unlocked his cage and his bleeding half councious friend was thrown in. To his terror, after the two buffalos had dropped Judy they proceeded to hold all four of his limbs while the deer started unlocking his restraints. Nicholas Wilde had not thought it possible, but in this moment he dreaded nothing more than the idea that his muzzle could be taken off.

* * *

Three other ZPD cruisers had already arrived at the warehouse. All police mammals were in a rush to put on their riot uniforms. Meanwhile officer Pennington was assembling the ZPD battering ram they would use to get into the building. All officers would use tazer submachine guns so they could quickly take out as many hostile mammals as possible. They were also equipped with a real pistol each, in case the tazers did not have the full desired effect on any of the hostiles.

With the two of them, there were now 8 police mammals at the site. They had to wait for one more cruiser to arrive before they were allowed to breach the building by Bogo's orders.

* * *

Nicholas Wildes worst fear became a reality. The deer proceeded to take off his muzzle after he had cut his hands free. Nick tried to use all his limbs to fight them, but the two buffalos held him in an iron grip that he couldn't escape. After his muzzle had come off, he tried to bite one of the mammals restraining him, but the Buffalo was faster and used one hand to hold Nick by his throat so he couldn't move his head. The deer left and the two Buffalos threw him into the corner of the cage farthest from the door. Both of them quickly left and the deer locked the cage again. Nick saw the deer take out the Nighthowlers gun again and point it at him. Then he pressed the trigger.

* * *

Chief Bogo had been informed that only 8 officers had arrived at the destination so far. From the first stream he was sure that at least as many hostiles were in the building, and many of them were armed. He had to make one of the hardest decisions of his life: Send in his officers now against more enemies than they could probably handle, or let whatever would happen next unfold.

Then he was informed that the stream had gone live once more. With terror he looked at the screen infront of him that now showed a smaller cage. In it lay the wounded Officer Hopps and to his surprise Officer Wilde was in the same cage. However, it seemed Wilde was fighting himself from the pained expression on his face. Bogo immediately recognized the expression, it was that of a mammal trying to fight the effects of Nighthowlers.

Bogo had made his decision, he told the oficers at the warehouse to breach the door and storm in immediately.

* * *

The serum felt like fire going through his veins. Nick had never physically suffered this much before. He had been hit in the forearm, and the pain quickly extended towards his shoulder. He had to stop himslef before it was too late. Before he would go savage. Nick bit his upper arm with all the strength his jaws could muster in an effort to tare it off before the serum could spread any further. The pain was unbearable, but his bite was too weak to tear his arm off. If stopping himself from going savage was not an option he had to stop himself alltogether. _*For Judy*_ Nick thought and hit the side of his skull with the claws of his still unaffected hand, but while the scratches ran deep he didn't manage to knock himself out. The pain had arrived in his shoulder and was going to his neck now. He only had seconds left before it would reach his brain.

Suddenly he heard a loud bang on one of the large garage doors of the Hall. Nick didn't bother to look what had caused the sound, knowing that there was nothing left he could do to stop himself he looked at Judy one last time. The barely councious rabbit was staring in his eyes. Nick saw fear in her eyes, the fear of a a prey mammal that knew it couldn't escape from a vicious predator.

Then the serum reached his brain, and Nicks world went red.


	19. The thin blue line

**Authors note: For this chapter I would once again like to recommend a song, "Love &Loss" by Mattia Cupelli.**

* * *

 **Chapter 19 – The thin blue line**

Beep.

Nick opened his eyes. The noise hadn't woken him up as it seemed very distant, but it was the first thing he perceived.

Beep.

He looked around himself and realized he was in a hospital. Besides his bed sat his colleague, officer Delgato. Nick also noticed one of his paws was handcuffed to his bed.

Beep.

Nick looked to the other side of his bed and saw another hospital bed similar to his own. In it lay a tiny mammal that looked like a mummy, with the amount of bandages she was wrapped in. Bonny and Stu Hopps sat next to the bed, so it was easy enough for Nick to guess who lay there.

Beep.

Nick looked back to Delgato. The lion noticed he was awake and greeted him with a friendly smile:

 _"_ _Officer Wilde, I see you have finally ended your slumber?"_

 _"_ _Where… what? Is.. Judy ok? Am I under arrest?"_ Nick had a hard time speaking. His muzzle hurt like hell. He also felt severe pain at the side of his head and in his upper arm.

Beep.

 _"_ _No need to talk Wilde. I will explain everything to you. But first let me take these off. I was instructed to cuff you until I could be sure the antidote has worked and you wouldn't be savage any longer."_

Delgato then took off Nicks handcuffs.

Beep.

" _Alright. Now let me explain what happened. I assume you can remember everything up to the point where you got shot with the serum. Is that correct?_ "

" _Yes_ " the fox responded.

Beep.

 _"_ _Everything in that warehouse was livestreamed. A civilian called ZPD and told us about the livestream. All of Precinct One rushed to that warehouse immediately. We stormed the building just seconds after you got shot with the serum."_

Beep.

 _"_ _After you got shot you tried to stop yourself Wilde. You tried to stop yourself at best you could. That's why your arm and skull hurt so much I assume. But you were not able to stop it. Our officers rushed in when you started to attack Hopps."_

Beep.

 _"_ _It took us about a minute to take out the bad guys before we could get to you. We tazed you immediately, but you had already severely attacked Hopps at that point. Both of you were brought here immediately. That was about 4 hours ago."_

Beep.

 _"_ _I have to share more bad news, so brace yourself. There wasn't anything left we could do for your mother. She has been shot in the head at point blank range. But we got the bad guys, we got the ones who did this. They are currently all being interrogated to find out more about the Clan."_

Beep.

 _"_ _Fangmeyer got wounded on the mission, but not severely. He will be fine. As will you Wilde, the doctor has told me that none of your wounds are too serious. You can expect to be released in the next few days."_

Beep.

 _"_ _Now before I say the next part I want you to know that it is not your fault. Noone blames you for what you did to Hopps. We all know you were under the effects of the serum, we all know you tried your best to prevent it."_

Beep.

 _"_ _But I want to be honest with you Wilde. Even before they put Hopps in your cage she was already in a very bad condition from what your mother did to her. She had no strenght left to defend against you. We all saw what you did to Hopps in that cage. You…."_

Beep.

Delgato couldn't continue to speak. Stu and Bonny had both started crying in the background. Besides the whimpers of the rabbit parents the only noise in the room was now the occasional:

Beep.

Since Delgato had stopped speaking, Nick turned around to find the source of the beeps. He could see that Judy was wired up to a machine that pumped air into her longues. Several other cables and tubes connected her to different machines. One of them was the beeping heart rate monitor. On it Nick could see a thin blue line with an occasional bump when Judys heart was beating.

Beep.

Nick turned back around to face Delgato. He was rushed by guilt. It didn't matter to him that he wasn't himself at the time, * _I have done this to Judy*._ He needed to know what he had done to his best friend. He needed to know it now.

 _"_ _What did I do Delgato?",_ anticipating that it would have something to do with it he added _"Why does my jaw hurt so much?"_

Beep.

The lion knew his fellow officer deserved to know the truth. _"You went full savage on her Wilde. You bit her violently again and again, that's why your jaw hurts so much. She was in the operations room for hours."_

Beep.

 _"_ _The doctor told us she lost her left foot from the attack. And the entirety of her right arm was torn off. And half her left ear. And she has severe injuries to the spine, even if she gets fine again she will likely be paralyzed."_

Beep.

Bonnys crying had gotten much louder now. Stu on the other hand had started to feel a whole different emotion when he heard the description of what Nick had done to Judy again.

 _"_ _What do you mean 'if'"_ Nick asked in pure terror.

Beep.

 _"_ _The doctor gives her only a 15% chance to make it Wilde. She will likely not see another day."_

Stu Hopps was overwhelmed by anger. He had always known foxes couldn't be trusted. He wanted to avenge his daughter right now and stormed towards the fox that had done this. Bonny had her eyes closed while crying and didn't realize what her husband was doing.

Beep.

Delgato noticed the rabbit storming over towards the foxes bed and catched him before he could jump at Nick.

 _"_ _This fox did this to my daughter! Let me go!"_

 _"_ _I think it is better if the two of us leave the room for a while"_

Delgato dragged the struggling rabbit out of the room until he would calm down.

Beep.

Nick had to see Judy. He had to see what he had done. _"Bonny can I come over to see Judy?"_ he asked.

The rabbit seemed to barely recognize she had been asked a question, but nodded. Nick got up from his bed. All his limbs were hurting terribly, but Nick paid no attention to the pain. He almost fell while making the few steps over to Judys bed.

Beep.

Nick swung his unharmed hand towards her bed to hold on to something so he wouldn't collapse from the exhaustion. He got closer to Judy. Barely anything of her was visible under the amount of bandages she was kept in.

Beep.

 _"_ _Nick I want you to know I don't blame you for this. Stu will understand too, he just needs time. The doctor told us that talking to her can help. You can try if you want."_

Beep.

Hearing this, Nick got closer to Judys unharmed ear, that was sticking out under all the bandages.

 _"_ _Do you remember that carrot pen recording you still have carrots? The one where I say 'I am so sorry for all of this'?"_

Beep.

 _"_ _You wont need that recording anymore. Because I will spend every day of the rest of my life apologizing for what I have done to you. You will hear me say how sorry I am as soon as we meet in the morning for the rest of your life Judy."_

Beep.

 _"_ _The last thing this stupid fox will say before we part ways each day is how sorry I am. And it will not be enough. It can never be enough. Nothing I can ever say or do could make right again what I have done to you."_

Beep.

 _"_ _I promise you that I will always be there for you Judy. I will replace the leg and the arm and the ear and the spine that you have lost. I will make sure that your life will be good. I will make sure it will be a life worth living."_

Beep.

 _"_ _You have already beaten the odds so many times Judy. Noone believed that a rabbit could be a Police Officer and yet you did it. Noone believed you could solve the Nighthowler case and yet you did it."_

Beep.

 _"_ _Noone believed a fox could be more than a street hustler and yet you showed me I could. I did not believe my mother would forgive me and yet you showed me."_ Nick let his tears flow without restraint.

Beep.

 _"_ _You achieve what others think is impossible and beat the odds Judy. That's just who you are. I don't care what the doctors think of your chances. I know my carrots will beat the odds."_

Beep.

 _"_ _After all there is still so much left for us to do in this world Judy Hopps. You said you wished mammals like Big and the Clan wouldn't exist, so I promise you that we will stop them. Just promise me that you will not stop now Judy."_

Beep.

 _"_ _I need you by my side Judy. We can only make the world a better place together. I need you to achieve that goal. I need you as my friend. I need you as my partner. You have to wake up for me Judy."_

Beep.

 _"_ _You cannot leave your family behind in this dark world. I beg you to not leave me alone Judy. You have to wake up because…"_

Beep.

 _"_ _Because I love you Judy."_

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.


	20. Become the beast!

**Authors note: Welcome to the final chapter. This chapter consists of 3 parts. I would like to recommend music for all of them. For Part 1, I recommend "Heroes" by Peter Gabriel. For the second part, "The Untold" by The Secession, and for the final part "Become the Beast" by Karliene**

* * *

 **Chapter 20 – Become the beast!**

 **Part 1**

It was the first cold day of autumn. A heavy wind was blowing through the streets of Zootopia. The first leaves were falling from the trees.

The nurses had rushed the hospital room only seconds after her heart had stopped beating. But all efforts were in vain. Her injuries were just too severe.

That was two days ago.

Yesterday Nick had learned the identity of the Clans leader. It was a goat he knew from his past live as a hustler. His colleagues had found out about the guy when they interrogated the other clan members. Nick knew where the goat lived as he had worked with him many years ago, but something kept him from revealing that information to his colleagues.

This morning Nick had buried his mother. No other mammals had shown up to mourn her when her body was lowered into the dark pit. Nick had himself spoken a few words, with the autumn wind being his only audience. Nobody cared for just another fox that had died in the streets of this city.

Now Nick attended his second burial that day. He wanted to give the Hopps family some space, so he made sure to keep his distance from the many rabbits that surrounded her coffin. Surely they had heard that he was the one who had attacked her, who had mauled and killed her. He knew he was the last mammal any of Judys relatives would want to see in these dark times, so he stood outside the graveyard, hiding behind a hedge and only peeking through.

Right now chief Bogo was speaking. From his distandt hideout, Nick could barely hear what the Chief was saying. Something about the remarkable work she had done. That she was always good at heart. That the ZPD would never see her likes again.

Everyone lined up to take one final look at her body before the casket would be closed and lowered into the ground. Nick knew he wouldn't be welcome there, but this was his last chance ever to take a look at Judy. When only two rabbits were left in the line to see her body he ran forward in an attempt to catch a final glimpse of his carrots.

He arrived just when they started closing the lid of the coffin. He could still see Judy for just the blink of an eye, but that was enough. She was barely recognizable, with her face being scratched like that, half her ear missing, and one sleeve empty, aswell as only one foot.

Nick saw Stu Hopps storming towards him, crying out at him to at least give his daughter peace in death after he had killed her.

Nick couldn't take it. He ran off the graveyard. He continued running for half an hour until his still injured body hurt horribly. But no physical pain could be as bad as the emotional tornment he tried to escape from. So he continued running unitl he collapsed in a dark back alley.

Nick gained consciousness again minutes later and walked home defeated, not paying attention to the traffic when he crossed a road, as he hoped a car would run him over. But all drivers stopped in time.

Finally he arrived at his flat and collapsed on his bed.

 _*All Judy had wanted was to make the world a better place. And now she is dead. I have killed her. My fangs have taken her life.*_

Nick knew he wouldn't be able to live with the guilt. It was not right that he was still breathing while she lay in her grave. He thought about how he would do it. How he would end his life. But would Judy have wanted that? Would she have wanted him to just give up and end it all?

 _*No*_ he decided, _*I wont just end it with a rope around my neck.*_

Instead, he decided he would fulfill Judys final wish to stop all mammals that were capable of doing so much harm to this world. Mammals like the leader of the Cow Clan and Mr. Big. Nick would stop both of them. It would be his final gift to her.

* * *

 **Part 2**

Nick sat down in his flat and took out a sheet of paper. There were two notorious crime bosses he would take down today. One of them he would take out by himself, the other by revealing all there was to know about himself. He took a deep breath, lowered his pen down on the paper and began to write:

" _To Chief Bogo._

 _I write this letter to reveal a part of my life that I have never revealed to anyone before, a part of my past that I should be in prison for. I have decided to write this letter because everything I held dear in this world is gone. My final wish is to take revenge for the deaths of my mother aswell as officer Judy Hopps. I did not get to tell her that I love her in life, so I will show her in death._

 _I worked for the Mafia Boss known as 'Mr. Big' for 3 years. Although I did not know it at first, I helped Big pull through one of the most horrific crimes imaginable. As proove that all I confess in this letter is true, I ask you to dig up the grave of Mr. Bigs grandmother. You will find her in the remains of a Skunks fur._

 _This Skunk was one of the many victims Mr. big sold. I worked for him as a truck driver and transported his victims or their remains. Big hired me because I promised to take no intrest in what I was transporting._

 _Mr. Big was at the time, and is probably still, the largest provider of meat in Zootopia. His Ice Bears abducted prey mammals, fattened them and slaughtered them, their corpses were chopped up and sold as meat to predators._

 _I was transporting this 'product' for Big. I found out when I heard what sounded like kids crying from the back of my truck. It was a delivery towards Bigs house, the basement of which he used to slaughter his victims as I later learned._

 _I knew it was strictly against the contract I had signed, but I opened the back of my truck and found several baby prey mammals in there. All of them were bound and muzzled and severly overweight, due to being fattened up before as I later learned. I had been driving kids to the slaughterhouse for three years of my life. Just this one time one of them wasn't muzzled tight enough and managed to cry._

 _I am not proud to admit that I was too afraid to call the police back then. Afraid that I was going to prison like I deserved. So instead I wanted to free the kids when I saw some of Bigs henchmen drive towards me. The trucks were bugged and he kept a close eye if any drivers stopped. The last thing I did was grab one of the body parts also stored in the back of this truck, the very Skunks hide that Bigs grandmother is burried in._

 _As far as I know, the kids I left behind were all slaughtered, chopped up and sold as meat. I tried to convince myself to dare go to police and tell them about Bigs crimes for days, but I was too weak. So instead I sold Big the Skunk rug, it was my way of dishonoring his family._

 _I never worked for Big another day in my life. Since as a fox I couldn't find honest work either, I husteled for several years after that to keep a steady income. Knowing that revealing this secret would get me into prison for life made me too afraid to ever contact police. But I am not afraid to go to prison anymore, as I will likely not be among the living anymore when you read this._

 _Officer Nicholas Wilde_ "

* * *

 **Part 3**

The fox put the finished letter in an envelope and wrote "Chief Bogo" on it, then got up from his table and went to the police station. All the officers seemed surprised to see him there already, only hours after Judy's burial. Some tried to offer words of comfort, but no possible combination of words could help Nick anymore. He went to Clawhousers desk and gave the Cheetah the letter he had just written.

 _"_ _Give this to Bogo tomorrow in the morning. Do not give it to him any earlier. Do not open it yourself or show it to anyone. Have you understood that?"_

The cheetah nodded and tried to say something to Nick, but the fox already disappeared around some corner. He was headed towards the part of Precinct One where real weapons were stored. The ones that shot lead. Nick had no permission to enter this room right now, but it didn't matter to him. He knew the code to unlock the door, so he stole a revolver and two bullets, and put them in his backpack. Two bullets, one for the goat and one for himself.

Twenty minutes later Nick stood in front of the house he would spill blood in. He took out the gun and put the bullets in, on the open road. He didn't care if someone would see him with a weapon right now.

Nick held the gun with his uninjured arm and knocked on the wooden door with it. Noone answered the door. Nick tried opening it. It was locked. From the name under the bell he knew it had to be the right house, so he kicked the door in and aimed at whatever would be behind it.

There was nothing.

Nick went into the house. There was a stairway leading up to the first floor, aswell as several doors leading to different rooms. This time he also checked and noted there was a security camera filming him.

A tiny object fell down from the stairway and Nick imediately recognized what it was. A flash grenade.

He tried turning his head away but was too slow. The light blinded the nocturnal mammal completely.

He heard someone running towards him and aimed purely based on his hearing. Nick pulled the trigger. He missed. The bullet got stuck in some wall behind whoever was approaching him.

Then someone snatched the gun from Nicks hand. Nick grabbed into the direction he assumed the attacker to be and got hold of something. Nick could identify by shape that it was a gun, but not the one he had just lost.

 _"_ _Nicholas Wilde. I have expected to see you again"_

Nick pointed whatever gun he now held in the direction the voice was coming from.

 _"_ _Oh and I advice you not to use that, fox, unless you want me to go savage"_

Nick had finally regained some of his vision and could make out that what he held in his hands was a Nighthowler's gun. If he shot his enemy the gooat would go savage and kill him. If he did not shoot, the goat would shoot him with his own gun.

 _"_ _I hear you worked for Big, Wilde. I hear you transported my kids to the slaughterhouse for him. I have spent the last years of my life imagining all the horrible things I would do to all that helped kill my family. And now you come to my house, and let me disarm you this easily. Thanks for making this simple for me Wilde. And now hold still."_

Nick could see the goat taking out what looked like a pair of handcuffs while he still pointed the revolver at Nicks chest.

 _"_ _You are right. I helped Big kill your kids, and I know you wont believe me when I tell you I didn't know what I was doing at the time. I also probably deserve everything you have planned for me. You are just wrong about one thing. I am not disarmed. A predator is never disarmed."_

Nick held the Nighthowlers gun to his own head and pulled the trigger.

* * *

Bogo sat down with a letter Clawhouser had given him. It was from Wilde, and Bogo didn't know what to think of that.

He put on his glasses and began reading

 _"_ _To chief Bogo_

 _I write this letter to reveal…"_

Two minutes later the Chief took a deep breath, grabbed his microphone and told all officers of Precinct One to immediately drive towards the house of a certain crime boss in Tundratown.

* * *

Dawn Bellwether sat in the prisons TV room. ZNN was on. She heard the news anchor:

 _"_ _We have received unconfirmed reports that the ZPD have stormed a building in Tundratown yesterday. In this building they supposedly found a slaughterhouse where prey animals have been butchered and chopped up for years. This horrific crime was undertaken so their meat could be sold to predatory mammals on the black market. The ZPD refuses to comment on these reports._

 _ZNN has also been sent a video taken by security cameras two days ago. Due to the graphic nature of the content we have blurred out several parts. What you are about to see is ZPD officer Nicholas Wilde, the same fox officer that was seen attacking rabbit officer Judy Hopps on livestream just 4 days ago, attacking yet another prey mammal. While an official ZPD statement has confirmed that his attack agains officer Hopps was caused by him being shot with Nighthowlers against his will, this new video shows the same officer shooting himself with the serum and then attacking an unknown goat. The goat can be seen shooting the savage police officer in selfdefense. Both mammals were found dead today._

 _These two reports have caused widespread public outrage. Several prey animal's unions have called for the eviction of all predatory mammals from Zootopia to ensure the safety of prey. Others are calling for the introduction of shock collars to all predators to help them control their savage urges. "_

ZNN went on to host a debate about how the danger predators posed to society could best be controlled. Dawn Bellwether watched with a wide smile. What Nick and Judy had prevented her from accomplishing, they had now accomplished themselves.

 _*The work is done*_


End file.
